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. :/

It was my favourite part too, and if I'd heard it about this one, I'd probably have been dubious before going into it.

I'm just anxious to share it with somebody, heh.

These new cretins

Indeed a terrible cover, it's like they put a cassette tape over the CD/LP cover and scanned it. If it was one or the other, I would probably just feel meh about it rather than disliking it.

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to this as the track I heard was really impressive. I like both Hidden and Beat Pyramid and listen to them on occasion but have never loved them. I'm looking forward to the different approach.

Yeah so...this is really good. Very glad they changed their direction. Maybe I would like a bit more percussion on the album, but it's really well thought out and executed. Beautiful stuff.

I didn't really like Hidden that much despite really wanting to. I do think their change in direction is far more interesting and enjoyable and opens up huge possibilities of further directions for them. I actually like the sparse and loose percussion, it gives the album loads of space to breathe, however maybe a little bit more percussion on the tracks towards the end of the album might have kept it grounded a bit more.

The album reminds me a bit of the last two Talk Talk albums Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock in their sparseness, freedom and use of soft synths to create an ambient feel. Definitely one of the best of the year for me.

This is a delightful little album. "Fragment Two" is probably the highlight.

I find it so bleak that "delightful" seems ironic, but I get what you mean, and I'm excited to see good reception.

The chamber aspect of this album reminds me of maudlin of the Well's last album Part the Second, though maybe only because I don't have much chamber music in my collection. I kept trying to put my finder on it with every listen but couldn't figure it out.