Headroom Review

The improvement over the debut is audible in the details. The synth patches are richer, the guitar has started to appear as a lead voice rather than a garnish, and the tempos have relaxed into the loping mid pace that would later become the signature. Several tracks here would sit comfortably on a playlist next to the band's better known work without anyone objecting. What is still missing is a centre.

The vocals rotate through different singers, so the album never establishes a point of view, and the writing has nothing to say beyond mood. Because of that it functions as background: pleasant, well made, entirely passive. There is a real skill in what these two do with a bass line and a filtered pad, and it is on display throughout. Whether that is enough to hold forty minutes without a personality attached to it is a question the record cannot answer. Worth a listen for the production and not for the songs.