Land of Talk - Life After Youth

Seven years after previous LP ‘Clock and Cipher’ and Montreal’s Land of Talk waste no time in getting back to it. Opener ‘Yes You Were’ positively bursts out of the blocks, singer Elizabeth Powell pausing for nary a breath before delivering the kind of mellifluous, heart-busting vocal that first enticed Bon Iver to produce their superlative 2008 debut ‘Some Are Lakes’.

From then, however, things take a turn for the introverted. But if the band have grown into a slightly more mid-tempo affair than the indefinably antsy quality that elevated that first record, then ‘Life After Youth’ proves that middle age still has its rewards. Falling somewhere between Poliça with an Americana tinge and a less naff Fiona Apple, the likes of ‘Inner Lover’ and ‘This Time’ are cerebral cornerstones that hold up a record characterised by evident catharsis. One for when you’re feeling reflective.