The Mackem quartet's fourth album is more of the same - tunes with jerky riffs, closely-sung harmonies and shades of occasional gloominess. But if the formula ain't broke, why fix it?
Now that they've settled into the mentality of being their own bosses and not worrying about supplying their label with an album full of singles (they were dropped from Warner offshoot 679 after their second album), Barry Hyde and co. sound audibly more comfortable. Don't worry, though, The Futureheads haven't 'done an MGMT' and proclaimed their fourth album to be devoid of singles or anything marketable - these 11 tunes follow the quartet's blueprint of unrelenting indie-garage-pop without too much variation.
Yet The Futureheads do what they do so well, that there's no real point in complaining about their material being samey. Being one of the tightest bands around means that songs like 'This is the Life' and 'Heartbeat Song' are a chaotic joy, while the band's apparent influences - The Knack ('Struck Dumb'), The Clash ('The Connector') and Madness ('The Chaos') - are given the charmingly jerky Futureheads treatment (snappy choruses, stop-start jerkiness) to thrilling end results.
That said, perhaps the darker moments as heard on 'Sun Goes Down' could have been more liberally dotted throughout an album so quick-paced that it'll make your ears feel like they've run a marathon. Still, this is an album worth several spins - and if you pick up the edition with the bonus tracks, you'll be treated to some magnificent barbershop quartet-style harmonies that validate the fact that The Futureheads have never been - or will never be - just another indie band.
