Sumptuous sounds, passionate lyrics and dynamic musicianship by guitarist Paul Gregory and co in the indie Newcastle-upon-Tyne band fronted by superb singer-songwriter Hazel Wilde with an album about self-definition, identity and “existential meditations examining life’s possibilities” in a troubled world. It all sounds very bleak and conceptual, but the soaring melodies and textured instrumentation make it all wonderfully accessible and defiantly uplifting, with an album about “facing the hand we’ve been dealt and the question of whether we can change our individual and collective destinies”. Standouts include The Likes of Us (“Oblivion howls for these gutted streets / Boarded shops cower in defeat … I won’t let this spark die in me”), the rousingly emotional Thumb of War, to musings on the multiverse in String Theory, all the way to closing track Last Transmission (“in the last gasp of this old world / You know I think I found the beauty and the good”). Fuelled by motherhood, but also by various difficulties such as the departure of drummer Ol Ketteringham leading to a year’s material being scrapped, the band instead enjoyed being joined by Radiohead’s Philip Selway for some sessions. The songs come with distorted guitars, piano, strings, percussion, bass and keyboards intertwining to weave fracturing, emotional atmospheres. Outstanding. Out on Bella Union.
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