Depression Cherry Review

After two records that got progressively larger, the band said openly that they wanted to go back to something smaller, and they did. The drums are programmed again, the arrangements thin out, and the whole thing is soaked in a velvet sounding reverb that makes it feel like a single long piece. Sparks is superb and is the one moment of aggression, opening with a distorted loop that sounds like a fault on the tape and building into the most exciting thing here.

Space Song is the other keeper, a slow, glowing thing that has quietly become their most played song by a distance, and it deserves that. PPP is lovely. But across nine tracks the tempos barely vary, the melodies are less shaped than on the previous two albums, and the last third drifts by without leaving a mark. Beautiful to sit inside and easy to lose track of. A very good band consolidating rather than pushing, which is fine once and would not stay fine.