Unravelling by We Were Promised Jetpacks

First and foremost, I apologise for displaying the cover of this album so largely. It's a pretty cool
optical illusion but please don't look at it for more than two seconds. I can't afford to be sued for all your migraines right now!

Album cover aside, Unravelling is We Were Promised Jetpacks third album and it's been a long three year wait for it's arrival. The Edinburgh quartet have been creating some of the loveliest indie rock in the UK for ten years now but their latest LP leaves a lot left to be desired. Their accents seem to be less prominent and the big sounds of riffs and fills instead take the limelight. Like most indie bands these days, the sound has grown and become more vast but that isn't what We Were Promised Jetpacks do best. Their debut album, These Four Walls, was an amazing album full of understated songs with sweet lyrics but Unravelling is far removed from that. Right from track one the boys have pushed their sound and stretched it to places it shouldn't be: it's strained and it feels like their trying really hard to be this big band that they just aren't.

I criticise this with a heavy heart because there was a spark within this band which could have lead to them becoming something really amazing but it seems they have unravelled. There is no longer an urgency to their sound. Songs such as Peaks And Troughs feel not quite right and there's an Editors-esque vibe to the music which doesn't quite fit. It all sounds the same and it's so disappointing. Having said all this, there are small glimmers of positivity with tracks such as Peace Sign and A Part Of It, which are more reminiscent of the sound I fell in love with back in 2009.

I'm not even sure I'd recommend listening to this album. If you want to hear We Were Promised Jetpacks, do yourself a favour and go straight back to These Four Walls. That is an album to fall in love with. Unravelling just isn't what it should be.

4/10

Listen to: Peace Sign

Unravelling is available to buy now.