HMLTD - The Worm

It’s safe to say HMLTD have left no stone unturned for album two. Featuring 47 musicians in total - a gospel choir and 16-piece Greek string orchestra included - ‘The Worm’ comes moulded in the guise of the ‘70s high-concept British prog-rock album: all Medieval influence, stylistic virtuosity and inexplicable science-fiction narrative. Telling the story of human psychological struggle and salvation through the tale of a giant worm swallowing the city of London (yes really), the record is just so astonishingly committed to its outlandish - basically ridiculous - ideals that it manages to successfully move, enthrall, and weird out, at so many moments across its nine-track lifespan. The seedy freak-jazz of ‘Wyrmlands’ makes the skin crawl; the tear-sprinkled balladry of ‘Days’ waltzes tragically in the limelight; the massed voices chanting - “We were born in the belly of a great worm, a worm that swallows worlds” - in the title track is appropriately epic. So theatrical as to automatically presume a show-stopping stage production must surely be in the works, this stylistic clusterfuck is likely to satisfy those who gobbled up Crack Cloud’s similarly ambitious shift to expansive instrumentation. And if you’re just downright confused by the whole preposterous thing, that’s probably just fine too.