A welcome return by the band from Austin, Texas, their first studio LP since 2015’s Jet Plane and Oxbo, sees Jonathan Meiburg and others reconvening in a powerful, beautiful work, tackling the apparent global hopelessness of the past few years. In the interim songwriter and frontman Meiburg wrote a book, travelled in and made field recordings in South America (some of which appears on this album), and also formed a new band and made two albums – Loma –with Texan producer/engineer Dan Duszynski and singer Emily Cross. The beautiful, powerful lead single here, Xenarthran, was a previous Song of the Day, and, reminiscent of the hugely influential Talk Talk, and is inspired by the mostly South American group of so-called strange-jointed mammals – armadillos, anteaters, and sloths and resolves in a wash of strings and a choir of howler monkeys. Other standouts include opener Highgate, love song Aqaba, the thunderous Empty Orchestra, and Laguna Seca. Moving, emotional and full of maturity, certainly among this year’s standout albums. Out on Polyborus.
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