Public Lover
A Broken Shape Of You, 2012

A Broken Shape Of You

2012

Public Lover's debut album, A Broken Shape Of You, shows Bruno Pronsato and Ninca Leece doing what they do best: electronic avant-pop with a playful touch of romance. The album comes third in their short catalogue, after last fall's Musique D'Hiver Pour L' Été, released on Pronsato's label, thesongsays, and Naked Figures, a more upbeat but equally elegant effort for Telegraph. Both records revealed Public Lover to be something rather fresh: an electronic duo that has both production savvy and lyrical finesse. With A Broken Shape Of You, this budding dynamic reaches maturity, creating what is surely one of the best albums of the year. There are two sides to Public Lover–– the indie group and the production duo––and the tension between these two gives the album its momentum. At times it's driven by Ninca Leece's singing. The title track sets the scene with a string of potent images: "cold sunshine," "frosted window pane," "shadows of you and I." On "Under Your Tongue," she keeps us guessing with ambiguous metaphors: "It's something, to keep under your tongue, it's something, between your teeth." "I Try," one of the duo's best songs and the only previously released one here, strikes the album's most melancholy note, with those simple two words speaking volumes as they repeat. "Your Eyes Taste Like Mine" follows a similar blueprint: the oblique title phrase becomes more meaningful and more mysterious as the song floats on.