"Blending" received a 9.5 from us and was cited as one of 2022's top Post-punk albums. U2. This time around things are not as tense or dark, in fact, the guitar jangles and rings out with a tone that owes more to "Joshua Tree" era U2. I don't need them to be post-punk so the more upbeat songs work for me as they are well written and sound great. The London-based band leans more toward a punk thing for the second song, though it is more nuanced than most punk. They started expanding their sonic range on "Worth the Wait". The guitars here feel like something Andy Summers might do. They pack more of a power chord punch on the chorus.
They continue to share an idles-like formula of aggressive vocal punch over a moodier layer of melodic guitar work on "Feeling Bliss". There is an organic punk strum to "Fill the Gap" which sounds like something that could have emerged from the mid-90s. The sung chorus works better than the shouted vocals in the verse. "Mob DLA" carries more tension. , it finds an almost Fugazi-inspired balance of grit and melody. "Untethered" finds the guitar shimmering as the new bassist Jack Muncaster sits in the back of the mix. It could groove more if the bass sat more forward in the mix, but this works well enough to get the point across.
Their singer is putting more effort and offers a more vulnerable performance, giving the album's overall feel a more Brit-pop feel while retaining their backbone. The electronic elements added to their sound on "Mind's a Lie" are the clearest example of growth in their songwriting by their willingness to experiment. With this song, it's a gamble that paid off. The last song is a more straightforward uptempo post-punk banger that is more of what is expected from the genre. I will give this album a 9.5, as well, it's melodic nature gives it a slight edge over the last one, but the mix is more streamlined, though the strong songwriting balances it out.
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