Meh, not sure how I feel about that single. I honestly have only enjoyed the one-off track here and there ever since 'One More Chance'. 'Silent Alarm' though, in my opinion, is one of the best indie rock debuts of all time.
Musically that makes me interested to hear more definitely. Four was decent. Silent Alarm is a perfect album and probably in my top ten. I like Intimacy a lot. One Month Off, Your Visits Are Getting Shorter and Flux are anytime songs for me.
Intimacy never did much for me, so I thought Four was a great return to form album. Haven't gone back to Hymns since it came out
I think Kele has always been a pretty awkward lyricist and considering how prolific he is, I'm not surprised with his contribution here. However, I think there's a lot to like here even if the songs basic. They have an actual drummer again, Russell seems to have that freedom he enjoyed during the 'Four' recordings here, there's some need production trickery on some of the verse vocal areas... I'm enjoying the littler details within this.
Kele's worst is some of the worst there is, but he also wrote "This Modern Love", "Kreuzberg", "Rhododendrons" etc. he can clearly write a great lyric when he tries to, just makes the absolute lack of effort on songs like this even more painful
Seeing them play Signs and Blue at the Salt Shed last month was one of the highlights of the year for me (Different Drugs ruled live too). I think they're such a better band than they get credit for.