Pink Moutaintops - 'Outside Love' (Jagjaguwar) Released 04/05/09

Alongside being the leading force in Black Mountain, Stephen McBean has found time to release his third album under the Pink Mountaintops pseudonym. According to the press release, ‘Outside Love’ is “ten songs of love and hate that read like a Danielle Steel romance novel” – an odd choice considering the vast majority of critics are always eager to pan and detail the redundant nature of Steel’s work, or “fluff” as it is often referred to. Nevertheless, it’s clearly something they were very conscious of during production as the CD is complete with a tacky looking book on the cover.

‘Outside Love’ consists of 10 guitar-driven tracks, ranging from noisy upbeat rockers, to ballads and epic-pop tracks. Thanks to a stellar line up of contributors including Sophie Trudeau of A Silver Mount Zion and GYBE, Ted Bois of Destroyer, fellow Black Mountain band members and a whole host of others, instrumentation and arrangements are varied and an abundance of lush harmonies are present.

Highlights here are definitely the quieter numbers, delicate folk/country track ‘Vampires’ juxtaposes sweet string melodies and the sinister (possibly just bizarre) lyrical content, “A lover who simply won’t lay down and die”, and Ashley Webber (The Organ) does a formidable job on vocals for shimmering ballad ‘While You Were Dreaming’. In contrast fuzz-rock, Raveonnettes-esque numbers such as ‘Execution’ and ‘The Gayest of Sunbeams’ are pleasing enough, but lack excitement and fail to hit home.

It’s difficult to know what the driving force was behind ‘Outside of Love’ - it often feels as though McBean actively applied minimal thought and scrutiny to the song-writing process. Lyrically, the album feels like homage to hackneyed metaphors and similes - although it’s difficult to argue with the simplistic brilliance of ‘Holiday’ - ‘Everyone I love deserves a holiday in the sun’. Structures and progressions are also fairly typical, only the arrangements seem to have had extensive thought put into them.  John Congleton is the man behind the desk, who, as far as I can tell, now produces all new music created. As per usual, he has done a sterling job; all is crisp, clear and complimentary to the differing moods.

This is an enjoyable enough album that's strong in places, but may not have enough substance to receive great plaudits that would push McBean beyond his established fan base. While the record does reflect the few positive aspects there are of a Daniele Steele novel - having wide-appeal and accessibility; it also reflects the negative, being formulaic, lacking depth and not particularly unique.