The Robot Heart -‘The Robot Heart’ (Bleeding Heart Recordings)

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past month or so trying to get my ahead around this album. On a purely superficial level, it can be said that this is a very nice record, and i can see it appealing to people who enjoy fragile, epic indie (cf. Coldplay, Elbow, Radiohead circa The Bends) .

While I haven’t been blown away by it, I have certainly enjoyed it. One of the reasons I have kept coming back to it is the sense that underneath the surface there is something else. It’s a bit folky, a bit electronica (y?), and each successive listen has revealed something else. The two tracks that bookend the album ‘Singing To the Ghost’ and ‘The Machine’ are probably the most exciting here, as it feels that the band are experimenting more.

There’s a lot of promise here, and some really lovely tunes, but I also have a sense that the band seem to be holding back from unleashing more of the madness inside-and I’d like to see them do that on their next record.

***

The Robot Heart is out now on Bleeding Heart Records