The Ninth Wave - Happy Days!

Less a statement of intent than the Scottish now-quartet-again trying on a new sound for size, ‘Happy Days!’ has The Ninth Wave teaming up with The Horrors’ Faris Badwan. And what a stroke of genius that decision was. ‘00s indie’s own man in black takes the group’s dark electropop - which on two-part debut ‘Infancy’ shimmered, but often swayed a little too close to its influences and softens their palette to channel genuine darkness. ‘I’m Only Going To Hurt You’ takes the producer’s day job’s affinity for taking cues from the dancefloor to hypnotic effect, ‘Abattoir’ utilises the dual vocals of Millie Kidd and Haydn Park-Patterson to create a mood as haunting as its title suggests, while on ‘There Is Nothing I Hate More Than Small Talk’, a cheeky nod to Laurie Anderson’s ‘O Superman’ is layered with piano to create a bombastic Cold War Kids-esque emotional ballad for good measure.