Music From The Motion Picture

Music From The Motion Picture is the seventh studio album by alternative-pop duo Indigo Peak. It is the second to be released by the groups independent label IPR.

Background
Following the massive success of Indigo Peak's comeback album 'NRG', the duo began work on their seventh LP. A concept album, 'Music From The Motion Picture' is inspired by science fiction soundtracks of the 1980's. The album is heavily Synthwave and Retrowave in style. Its title was revealed in a Semble Management press release dated June 28th 2022. Twitter account 'Indigo Peak News' revealed that it would contain twenty tracks including lead single 'Intruder'.

Lyrically, the songs contents deals with relationships, addiction and death with Yannik Cassenove stating that some tracks were written from his own life experience.

Producer Andre Cassenove revealed in an interview with Audite Magazine that they had wanted an album which avoided current political themes.

Recording for the LP took place between January and May 2022 in Los Angeles, London, Manchester and Paris. Writing for the project began in September 2021 whilst the duo took a short hiatus prior to the release of 'Alive EP'.

'Intruder' was selected as the lead single from the project and debuted as part of a surprise set at Glastonbury 2022 followed by its release to streaming services on July 1st of that year. 'Intruder' was met with critical acclaim with its official lyric video garnering 200,000 views within twelve hours of its YouTube premiere. ‘Intruder’ debuted at the number one position upon release. Whilst the duo announced that ‘How To Feel’ would serve as the second single in conjunction with their movie ‘The Motion Picture AKA The Siege Of 1986’. The movie was released to critical acclaim however 'How To Feel' was abandoned as a second single and no further tracks were released from the project. Indigo Peak embarked on a twelve month hiatus.

'Music From The Motion Picture' became Indigo Peak's first album since 2009's 'Long Live' to be officially released to the American market. Whilst the duo had failed to make a major impact there with previous releases, they had built a sizeable following in the country prompting them to seek US distribution once again.

Tracks from the LP were performed as part of Indigo Peak's Indigo Peak & Co. stadium tour.

Influences
'Music From The Motion Picture', is inspired by 1980's science fiction soundtracks. An homage to the music of the day, the album leans heavily into the Synthwave/Retrowave genre.

Out of its twenty tracks, five are 'lead-ins' to other songs. 'Intermission' is a minute long 'ad-break' featuring parodies of television adverts from the 1980's and a spoken segment by American singer Emily Henning which parodies religious cable channels.

The records final track is a twelve minute overture inspired by movie scores. Indigo Peak enlisted the help of The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra who along with the duo performed on the track.

The Indigo Peak members are both fans of science fiction as they have revealed in numerous interviews since their inception. The projects visuals center around an Astronaut travelling through time which is also referenced in many of the records lyrics. The track 'Astronaut' directly addresses this as evidenced by the fact that it is entitled 'Astronaut'.

Critical Reception
'Music From The Motion Picture' received rave reviews from critics upon release. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, 'Music From The Motion Picture' has an average score of 100 based on 25 reviews, indicating 'universal acclaim'.

DIY Magazine reviewer Poppy Figgleton-Rice gave the album a five star rating, highlighting tracks such as 'How To Feel', 'The Road Not Taken' and 'Intruder' as stand-out tracks. In her review, Figgleton-Rice praised Indigo Peak for their use of real instrumentation throughout the LP.

Reviewer Tony Inglis of independent Scottish publication The Skinny gave the LP five Irn Bru's out of five, saying "In seven abums, Indigo Peak hae yit tae mak' us greet bit oan tracks lik' 'The Road Nae Taken' we wur reaching fur th' tissues."

Barry Jones of AllMusic in his review, said "as a body of work alone, 'MFTMP' is effortlessly beautiful. When taken into account that this is their seventh studio release, one can't help but admire the duo for managing to raise their own bar even higher."

Mandy Moob of Heatworld was less complimentary in her review of the LP, saying "I don't get it babes" but praising album cut 'We Had A Good Time' as "really fun to listen to when you're having a good time."

Andre Cassenove's production on the record won acclaim from critics and most people thought Yannik sang his little heart out better than he'd ever sang his little heart out before. Freddie Fleshman of The Independent wrote "there's a true earnestness to Yannik's lyrics here and the way in which he sings them" whilst saying of Andre "blooming heck mate, is this ever a fantastic record? One for the history books."

Of the instrumentation included, Sarah Satchel of The Times wrote "Andre Cassenove strikes again. What a tit slapper this is."

Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon praised the album via her official TikTok account, noting 'Intruder' and 'Striking Vipers' as amongst some of Indigo Peak's best work.

Tracklistings
All tracks produced by Andre Cassenove

Chart Performance
‘Music From The Motion Picture’ debuted at number one on the official UK top 40, their sixth album to do so.

Personnel

 * Indigo Peak
 * Yannik Casseonve – lead vocals, songwriter, instrumentation
 * Andre Cassenove – backing vocals, producer, instrumentation, arrangements, mixing


 * Other vocalists
 * Olivia Rush – backing vocals (tracks 4, 9, 12, 15, 18)
 * Emily Henning – spoken word (track 10)


 * Other musicians
 * BBC Philharmonic Orchestra – (tracks 5, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20)


 * Art direction
 * Elia Pellegrini – Photographer
 * Kieran Connor, Loft Creative – Designer