Ought – Room Inside The World

A gratifying return from the Montreal art-rock group...

Ought are back with the follow-up to 2015’s ‘Sun Coming Down’. Lead single ‘These 3 Things’ offered the first glimpse into ‘Room Inside The World’, and the track’s electric urgency, accented by pounding synth drums and a bulging bassline, does well to flaunt the Montreal art-punk outfit’s newly-refined sound right from the off.

On ‘Desire’, a slow-moving guitar sway creates the canvas for Tim Darcy to unfurl his larger-than- life vocals, dynamically jumping from earnest reflection (“You got creases on your face, the kind that give you grace”) to sweeping lust (“The feel of your honey in the corner of my mouth / Like a loop around the block, like a shadow in your notebook”).

While much of the new territory explored here proves to be fertile, the wide open spaces on opening number ‘Into the Sea’ make for what is a disjointed foray into stadium rock. ‘Take Everything’ and ‘Disgraced In America’ on the other hand are more satiating, and feature some of the better moments of Darcy’s faux-Morrissey croon, which tends to enchant as often as it irritates.

Ever the showman, Darcy and company have engineered a refreshing return which though softer around the edges than previous Ought releases, is no less gratifying.

7/10

Words: Noveen Bajpai

Dig it? Dig deeper: Parquet Courts, Protomartyr, Pavement

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