Shearwater – Animal Joy

Stunningly good music

‘Animal Joy’ is the ‘proper’ follow-up to 2010’s impressively prog ‘The Golden Archipelago’ (after last year’s set of self-released instrumentals). While it’s hardly the straightforward “rock” record the band had previously hinted they might make, it’s easily their most accessible. ‘Animal Joy’ channels the band’s more experimental tendencies, focusing them into a tight set of big-hearted baroque folk-pop. Opener ‘Animal Life’ has a slow-build loveliness that’s subtly subverted by an eerie minor-key refrain. ‘Insolence’ starts with a brooding, almost industrial feel, before it opens up and embraces the epic. And ‘You As You Were’ already feels like a festival anthem in waiting. Stunningly good music.

8/10

Words by WILL SALMON

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