An absolutely worthy late follow-up to Bluffer's Guide. The songwriting overall is not as strong as on their debut, nor is it as cohesive as a whole, but the unique soul of the sea-foraging sounds are ever-present and are so nice to hear again on new material.

Highlights: I Quite Like it When He Sings, A Season Underground, Controlling the Sea, To Live for Longer Slides

Crossing over into annoyance just infrequently enough to be dismissed, this is one of the most interesting records I've heard in some time, and I suspect one of the most experimental and off the wall albums of its time.

Highlights: A New Kind of Water, Paper Hats, Makeshift Swahili

Gritty guitar pop perfectly good for bouncing feet

I really appreciate this work. Sounds are chosen meticulously from a pallete of abrasive electronica and soft prepared piano, break-neck DnB and digital scratches/screeches. Each track is sound for the sake of individuality from the last all while staying within the window of cohesiveness that is steadily built tack after track.

Highlights: Mt Saint Michel, Avril 14th, 54 Cymru Beats

Synthy soundscapes with Bjork nonsense vocals, but it's pretty cool.

Kitschy and loud, but it's unique and goes utterly hard. The vocals sometimes teeter on the edge of "too much"

Highlights: Magnificent Stallion

I quite like this. Also this is quite disposable. The lo-fi synths are nice.

It sounds like finding an absolute gem from twenty years ago in the thrift store CD section. Really loving this and really loving that we still get this sound in full on debut rock records in the year of our lord. Just awesome.

Every track is a highlight.

I'm just very happy my favorite band is still releasing records of this caliber, comfortably distanced now away from their supposed "dark age." Sonically, this is undoubtedly a sister album to Time Skiffs. While that album was a much tighter collection of tunes with a focus on unforgettable hooks, this one goes more for atmosphere. Though the core of these songs are unwound into a pile of confetti, they are flying colors of doubling down on a successful new sound. There is a lack ... read more

Quirky atmospheric drum and bass mix in which the quirks get to be a distraction. The core of these loops are damn nice though.

Highlights: Last Night Over Norway, The Great Drive By

Though unnotable, beyond-dampened percussive thuds are the cure to shoulders raised in despair.

Apparently a soundtrack to a film about a sex doll being brought to life... okay. It is delicately beautiful piano and soft orchestral music though, how bout it. The bouncy midi accordion sound on Coloring of Adventure hits an obscure nerve deeply.

Extremely pleasant instrumental guitar album, and that's enough. Just as strong as their work from nearly two decades prior.

Highlights: Sunrise, Autumn

A beautiful, reverberating behemoth of layered guitar plucks, twiddles, and drones, boundlessly applicable to any profound feeling the mind can muster.

The fun melodies don't really make up for the toothless substance of these songs. Coming out of the matured angst of their previous record, this sounds like it's coming from a much healthier place, so I can appreciate the growth. But these are some pretty bog-standard pop tunes at the end of the day. On the other hand, although there is no bite, there is some joy to be had coming out the other side of a hard time. The weighty exhale of a deep breath of relief.

Highlights: Air For ... read more

The haunting drones of depravation around the real-life narrative of the death of a child are chilling to the bone, although I really don't care for the disjointed imagery of the spoken-word poetry often throughout. Nick Cave's desperate crooning is far more compelling. I feel this deserves more listens when I can bear to stomach it again.

Highlights: I Need You, Rings of Saturn, Jesus Alone

Was going to call this Owl City shit before I found out this actually is the guy from Owl City. Not a bad thing though! There's a time and place for soft pop with no hint of masculinity whatsoever. There really is, with the door closed and nobody home and with a bottle of soylent in your dainty hand. Songwriting is quite good, in all seriousness. Not that I listened to this shit. Couldn't be me. I did really like it though.

Highlights: Blue and Red, Explorers, Sailboats

Some of their all-time best material on their by-far most consistently great album. They've portrayed moving on from heartbreak in their previous work, but never with this much maturity and cautious underlying hope that's carried through melodies that are everything you could hope for on a pop-punk record.

Highlights: Savannah, Candlelight, Forget and Not Slow Down, Over It

More "mid-2000s Windows Movie Maker music" than I was expecting. That's not a bad thing at all, though it's hard to hear this downtempo project as anything beyond a nostalgic lookback of that era. It's a charmingly dated style.

Highlights: When I Go, With Rainy Eyes

Quite nice unobtrusive ocean-trench electronica.