Aided by Joan (As Police Woman) Wasser as producer, Lau's new album is, in its early stages, a slightly rockier affair.
Kris Drever's guitar work is electrified and punchier on First Homecoming and The Death Of The Dining Car, while the flurry of notes from Martin Green's accordion and Aidan O'Rourke's fiddle on Back In Love Again uses the essence of traditional folk music to capture the headlong rush of infatuation.
Centrepiece is the 17-minute title track, premiered under the New Music Biennial banner at Celtic Connections in Commonwealth Games year, and again performed here in collaboration with the Elysian Quartet. As classical and folk boundaries blur, it becomes evident that Lau don't chase innovation and experimentation for their own ends, but to create unprecedented melodies, rhythms and textures. What a pure, flowing, euphoric piece of music this is.
The album ends with Ghosts, the best, most emotive song in Lau's repertoire, its message about immigration so timely and yet so timeless. As soon as their first record, 2007's Lightweights And Gentlemen, was out of the traps, Lau proved themselves to be one of the best live bands in the country. Now, with The Bell That Never Rang, this trio are so far ahead of everyone else in the studio that it's almost embarrassing.
Alan Morrison
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