A. G. Cook – Britpop

Not many artists can point to a 24-track, three-disc record and see it as a comparatively streamlined work. But the new album from A. G. Cook, super-producer and one of the few people who can claim to have altered the sound of modern pop music, is comparatively slight after the seven discs of his debut 7G. It’s all the better for it too, far more focused and emotionally considered, a sweeping accumulation of the last decade or so on Cook and his work.

Britpop divides its sprawl into three discs, Past, Present and Future. Past leans heavily on the hyper-synthetic take on dance music that Cook made his name with. The likes of Prismatic shows Cook has mastered this sound, making dance music out of what sounds like a mountain of acrylic being sucked into a black hole in the way only he can. Present by contrast showcases the singer-songwriter mode we've seen touches of throughout his work, all distorted guitars and autotuned vocals. These tracks don’t have the same sense of identity as the other two discs, blurring into each other more readily, but they work perfectly well, particularly Without, the coda of which has an absolutely heartbreaking interpolation that irrevocably alters the mood of the record in a really interesting way.

Future turns back to his more usual palate, but with a more mournful feel, the giddy nostalgia matures into something more bittersweet. It makes for a spectacular conclusion, setting Cook’s touchstone sonics into moods he has rarely allowed to be so fleshed out. The trio of discs add up to a surprisingly tight record, a superb summary of Cook’s work to date, and a thrilling pointer to where the future may lead.

Listen to: Prismatic, Luddite Factory Operator, Lucifer