In my second year of university, I ended many nights hovering over the counter at the Chicken Cottage conveniently below my flat. As I reminisce to We Will Annihilate Our Enemies, the latest offering from electronic duo Real Lies, I think Kevin Lee Kharas has a point: all the best songs do sound like longing.
From benders in Seven Sisters and the smell of petrol stations off the North Circular, to mourning drifting friendships and ‘what could have been’, Real Lies’ critically acclaimed 2015 debut saw the electronic duo oscillate between the existential and the quintessential at whim. Similarly, 2022’s Lad Ash saw a delicate balance between nostalgia-laden reflections (queues outside the fish shop and post-rave disorientation) with musings on self-expression. With We Will Annihilate Our Enemies, Kharas and Pat King continue to carry the torch for modern angst, and learning to love it in the process – pulling from an even broader palette of influences to create their most mature, refined work yet.
Pat King pushes their anthemic sound further. Tracks like ‘I Choose You’, ‘Loverboy’ and ‘Wild Sign’ teeter on club classics territory. The quirky, upbeat ‘Toward Horses’ is part Hot Chip homage, part Basement Jaxx bounce. You’re then yanked back from the dancefloor by the sprawling cinematic soundscape of ‘WWAEO’, which feels like digging your toes into the sand as strong waves rush over your feet. It’s an ode to brotherhood, with King’s synth pad swells and bit-crushed ride bell resembling a slow-motion trip. On ‘Down & Out’ and ‘I Could Join The Birds’, Kharsas delivers in his definitive half-sung style, poetically reflecting once more on the everlasting yearn for freedom and rapture of London’s party scene. The heartfelt hook on ‘ICJTB’ evokes Roland Orzabal’s iconic baritone when Tears for Fears made a protest song that one time.
There are sprinkles of humour in the album, too. ‘LOVERWORLD’ offers witty one-liners that make you grin, then wince: “Don’t you love what Sunday’s guilt does to your Strava stats?”. It’s a line that dovetails with the nods to male mental health established on ‘Lad Ash’: “I love undiagnosed signs of serotonin depletion in men”. Perhaps those inner demons are the enemies hinted at by the cryptic album title.
On the magical concluding track ‘Finding Money’ (featuring actress Jess Barden), Real Lies cement exactly what they set out to do: emerge from a ‘lost past’ by writing a powerful, atmospheric record about the here and now. Nevertheless, the album’s not afraid to be occasionally pulled back into the warm embrace of nostalgic memories, however gritty and candid they might be, in true sentimental MGMT style. But this isn’t a bad thing; rather, it’s a reminder of the mystical glue that’s held together the world of Real Lies this whole time.
