Untourable Album Review

The title is a joke about the circumstances and the circumstances did the band a favour. Cut off from playing, they made a record rather than a run of singles, and it is the first time their work has any shape across a whole side. Organon opens with a bass line and a guitar phrase that establish the mood in fifteen seconds. Sugar is the loveliest thing they have written, a slow drift with a chorus that barely raises its voice and does not need to.

Oh Dove is the one that moves, all clipped guitar and a bass line that will not sit still. Tree Among Shrubs and Serenade of Water hold the middle without sagging. Everything is still whispered, everything is still built on that round, soft, compressed bass tone, and the lyrics remain a handful of impressions per song. But at thirty six minutes it never outstays itself, and the sequencing gives the songs somewhere to go. The best entry point to this band, and the record most likely to convert a sceptic.