“My Ice Queen” immediately makes its case. A mid-to-low tempo chugging rhythm underpins choppy guitar, a contemplative, distant vocal and a general air of disassociation. Brief sections of the song feature – albeit muted – guitar mangling and feedback. The lyrics tell of a “heartbreak machine, coolest girl you’ve ever seen.” Icy? Absolutely. Then take the similarly restrained “Life Goes on,” so hazy a rumination it seems to have materialised from the mists enveloping Venus.
It isn’t all so crepuscular. “Song for John” – seemingly an elegy for John Lennon – has a gentle bossa nova sway. It’s small-combo, guitar-centred pop at its most lean, most understated. Elsewhere, the airy “Even if” is yet another arresting example of the sometimes buoyant but mostly…