Cymbals - The Age Of Fracture

chimes Cymbals vocalist Jack Cleverly on the disco-tinged ‘The Natural World’, a statement of intent and a microcosm for the amalgamation of big ideas and catchy as hell tunes on this, their second album.

The line also aptly hints at the progress the band have made. Debut ‘Unlearn’ showed promise but ‘Age of Fracture’ is that promise realised and then some. It’s bigger, more electronic and packed full of ideas, their sound having evolved from slightly scrappy punk-funk into sleeker, disco-infused house and synth-pop.

There are also lofty ideas at play. The album’s title is based on a book by Daniel T. Rodgers and Cleverly has talked about ”a feeling that everything is ‘too complicated’, and many people I know feel that same paralysis” when asked to define the themes of the record. And yet it’s sonically at least, defined by a sense of movement and grabbing opportunities – this is an album bursting with kinetic energy, full of life and big choruses.

It’s also one which shows growth without that boring sense of ‘maturity’. So it’s disco tinged at times, it’s also bright and sophisticated. It’s XTC, it’s Talking Heads, it’s The Cure, it’s early New Order.

That’s a lot to do with Cleverly, whose voice is both naïve and wise at the same time. The hefty literary references don’t get in the way of having fun. Just listen to the shuffling funk of ‘5%’ and its kaleidoscopic, everything-at-once chorus, the lithe swagger of the eight-minute epic single ‘Like An Animal’ which ebbs and flows and builds and gets deconstructed in a way that means you could easily draw comparisons with LCD Soundsystem. ‘Erosion’ meanwhile sounds like prime New Order.

Comparisons with Bernard Sumner also make sense – both have the knack of offering wisdom on the everyday. On ‘Empty Space’ he says ”Time can be erased, you’re stupid if you try and stay in place” and there are a plethora of lines imbued with wisdom through their delivery. On ‘The End’ he takes on relationships and sings in his native French before reverting back to English: ”It’s the end of the night, we’ve been dancing too much”. ‘The Age of Fracture’ ends with the long walk home and the stark, wiry isolation of instrumental ‘Call Me’. It makes sense – everything has been said.