NEW ALBUMS
BROKEN BELLS
Into The Blue AWAL
7/10
First in eight years from Shins/ Danger Mouse hook-up
The risk with a distinctive sound is that overfamiliarity dulls its lustre, and that could easily have been the case with BB. Their third LP makes no radical changes to their melancholic alt.pop – characterised by James Mercer’s light voice (though he’s added an alluring croak to his arsenal), panoramic arrangements and Brian Burton’s sun-glazed, ’70s-soul production – but it does find them loosening the ties a little. The languorous “Love On The Run” and baggy psychedelia of “Saturdays” stand out, while the Bee-Gees-in-space thrust of “One Night” harks back to 2014’s After The Disco. No overhaul then, but the BB allure still holds.