These New Puritans - Field of Reeds
 

They deserve a spanking for that terrible excuse for a cover, but I may have to check this out. They've never quite won me over but they've always seemed like a band with tons of potential.

Which of their previous albums have you given a go?

Hidden. You gave it to me actually. :)

Oh, okay, as long as it wasn't Beat Pyramid. Not that Beat Pyramid is trash, just that it doesn't even sound like the same band.

So what do you think of this album? Similar to Hidden? Different? Better? Worse?

It is both a logical step forwards, and a surprise, and while it's early for me as I love both records, I might love this one a hair more. It's the soundtrack of a lone white house perched on a hill on a rainy day. The sort of setting for a haunted-furniture burning, heh. Bleak, somber.

I don't want to ruin the surprise, but they chucked out "the thing" that defined their last two records, and it's both fundamentally different and still characteristically These New Puritans.

So is it a little more sparse than the last album? That's the impression I'm getting from your imagery. I'm curious what this "thing" is you're referring to. I'm not sure I'll be familiar enough with their previous work to catch it.

Also, lol at the burning furniture.

I'll just ruin it then, it's absolutely sparser, as they've dropped everything beat-based, which was the undisputed focus of their previous work.

Hmmm... that was actually the thing I liked most about Hidden. I'm not sure how I feel about that. :/