Album Review

We Were Promised Jetpacks – Unravelling

• 6th Oct 2014

Album number 3 from Scots We Were Promised Jetpacks certainly has quite something to live up to in terms of both previous releases and in terms of how well other Scottish acts have been doing in the past couple of years. There’s a beautiful Scottish accent at play, but there’s so much more to this album than the obvious similarity to their contemporary countrymen.

From the dulcet tones of the first bars of opening song ‘Safety In Numbers’ there were many comparisons throwing themselves into this unique blend of airwaves. A beautiful, almost haunting, album with hints of ‘Little Comets’ and ‘The Maccabees’, Unravelling displays more edge and slightly more punk, but still feels as youthful as if it was a debut release. Tight, focused and with a perfect sense of direction, the album moves leanly from song to song, no longer leaving you thinking ‘this is good’, but more ‘I need to hear all of this. Now’.

Arena-ready vocals at times lead into the most intimate of songs; with an emotional journey to boot, this album is exceptional. A change in tempos from ‘Peaks and Troughs’ to ‘Peace Sign’ with detailed guitars and jagged rhythms, marks this out as 11 tracks of indie-rock bliss.

There are faults; underproduction in some areas, and too much instrumental with a lack of build up in some songs like ‘Night Terror’, but nothing that would be switched off if it came on the radio. ‘Bright Minds’ brings out the Alt-J edginess, and builds upon what some of the songs before may have lacked and caused a dip in attention, then followed with a personal favourite on the album ‘A Part Of It’.

From this release it’s clear that musical maturity does come with both age and experience. Hell, there’s nothing in their way that means they couldn’t do as well as the most recent Twin Atlantic campaign, or even the Biff, but I did promise that I wouldn’t make those Scottish comparisons.

– Jess Kempner

Venue: Unravelling
Support Band: FatCat Records