Oh goody, another “new Arcade Fire”. But wait! There’s more to the Scottish sextet’s second album than that comparison suggests. Sure, they share a love of sound, fury and huge emotional peaks, but there’s a vein of gentle folk beneath the bombast.
‘A Darkness Rises Up’ is furiously upbeat and affecting, while ‘Dia Dos Namarados!’ recalls one of Nick Cave’s murder ballads. Over the course of the album, the grandiosity gets wearying, and Jamie Sutherland occasionally sounds like Vic Reeves in full club singer mode. But, at its best, ‘Let Me Come Home’ is a thing of troubled beauty.
7/10
Words by Will Salmon
