Holy Fuck - Congrats

Back in 2010, Holy Fuck were getting sharper, smarter and more adventurous with every record they made. The raucous guitar-driven electronica they were making was subtly, intelligently geared at the kind of crowd who wouldn’t normally give that sort of thing the time of day. And then, they did their Houdini bit and vanished into thin air.

Six years down the line, with nothing in the way of an explanation as to what the devil they’ve been up to, the Canadians frankly have no right whatsoever to return with such swagger, with such self-assurance, as they have done with ‘Congrats’. This is an album polished enough to see your face in, and yet it’s probably - and this isn’t necessarily a criticism - the most disjointed Holy Fuck album to date. It comes over like a grab-bag of all the best material they’ve thrown together over the last few years, and as much as they’ve tried to standardise everything, and kind of break the individual tracks to break a specific sonic mould, you can still pick out the varying influences; ‘Tom Tom’ is all brooding, bass-driven aggression, and then ‘Shivering’ is glorious, shimmering electro-pop.

Later on, we segue from ‘Neon Dad’s stately ambience to the thumping gut-punch of ‘House of Glass’, and suddenly, emotions are in conflict; on the one hand, fair play to them for taking so long if such arrogant brilliance is the result, and on the other, please don’t make it another six years - Holy Fuck, we need this band.