Modern Studies have really surpassed themselves on this third long player.
The distinctive sound has been honed and tweaked further into something like Fleetwood Mac vs Fairport Convention… over these 12 tracks we get such an expanse of talent from all four members…
Opening track ‘Photograph’ is a beautiful, expansive song which demonstrates teh band at their best, mid-paced with vocal harmonies melding into something really quite out of this world…
There are so many treasures on this album it is hard to know where to start – track two ‘Run For Cover’ is a gorgeous male/female duet with a great backing track… squalls of guitar, the pumping drum and bass, and the keyboards make this track something special… bucolic yet eldritch, which is what MS do best…
‘Heavy Water’ is another great duet, while ‘She’ raises their sound to new heights, classic pop arrangements and proper middle eights, that is the way to go…
After ‘Corridors’ (another duet) we get ‘Signs of Use’, another duet which again takes BM’s breath away….
‘Brother’ has an addictive groove, and more duetting, lovely…
And the home run of ‘Back to the City’, ‘Jacqueline’, ‘Spaces’ and ‘Shape of Light’ is just astounding – all quality tracks, all meticulously thought out in terms of instrumentation, good grief this is a good album…
Hopefully these tracks will be experienced live in the flesh at some time in the not too distant future, in some kind of new normal, but for the time being this is such a great piece of work…