My Arms Around a Vision [Vinyl]

Girls Names return with their third album. Although they formed in Belfast,, theyve long considered themselves a European band. The distinction is important their vision of Europe is one of weird, labyrinthian histories, blackest-ever-black coffee, and long drives to dismal places. The band initially came together as a lean two-piece in 2010, but over the course of a handful of EPs and three very different albums, theyve grown in number and ambition. Their last album, The New Life, was an underground hit in early 2013, taking the band around the world and garnering much critical praise, culminating in nominations for both the Northern Irish and Irish Music Prizes. On Arms Around a Vision, theyre more widescreen than ever but also more direct and aggressive. The bass, drums and guitars are still there, but so are saxophones, organs, detuned broken guitars and pianos, and even sheets of metal assaulted with hammers. The album opens with Reticence, a song in two parts thats half metallic knockout, half midnight swagger. It sounds unlike anything theyve ever done before, and is a perfect primer for an album that treads a course between Eno-era Roxy sleaze, Birthday Party dissonance and the repetition, repetition, repetition of the Fall.Most guitar music now is just a playground for the rich middle classes and it's really boring and elitist. We're elitist in our own way, in that we're on our own and you can't fuck with us when weve nothing to lose. The near-6 minute A Hunger Artist tackles that subject full on, addressing that age old adage of suffering for ones art.

• Format Detail: 1LP
• Format: Vinyl
• Genre: Rock