With a new look, the popular Dublin post-punk band return with their fourth LP, one with a much broadened scope of sounds, poetic but also at times cinematic in musical image and in lyric, with big-time producer James Ford at the controls. The title pertains to romance as much as a physical place as the state of mind and relationship, but there’s also a running theme of and Grian Chatten’s lyrics have a loose, non-linear quality, a stream of consciousness in composition. The opener and title track immediately shows a new sonic era for the band, with a slow, epic sense of crashing foreboding and more of synthy Cure influence. Single Starbuster is one of the standouts, with a psychedelic twist, and that striking heavy breathing sequence. Another single, Here’s The Thing, moves into more shoegazey rock territory. In The Modern World and Horseness Is The Whatness are more of a string-laden ballads, but the latter moving into what sounds like city buildings crashing all around us. Favourite is an upbeat, indie happy finale, but overall t’s a dynamic release, filled with rich sounds and a sense of disturbance and insecurity, wonder and awe. A brave new world for the band to break new territory. Out on XL Recordings.
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