North Atlantic Oscillation

North Atlantic Oscillation

The Third Day

(Kscope)

TRACK eight, Pines Of Eden, is where this album all comes together. It's a gorgeous, late-night, reflective piece of subdued electronica, over which Sam Healy quietly sings lyrics with the enigmatic quality of the haiku: then along comes a beautiful, delicate little keyboard motif. It's the sort of track that gets under your skin so that you replay it until the CD wears out. There are lots of sublime moments on the third album by an Edinburgh trio once lauded by Guy Garvey as a "totally out-there post-prog electronica band". The Third Day doesn't have the the twitchy unpredictability of NAO's 2010 debut, Grappling Hooks, that made some critics (and Elbow's frontman) take notice. But it's a more complete, satisfying piece of work, taking up from where the second album, Fog Electric, left off. There are traces here of shoegaze, Sigur Ros and Grandaddy, but NAO are evolving a captivating rock-electronica sound of their own. If the Scottish Album of the Year longlist panel is looking for inspiration, this might be a good place to start.

Russell Leadbetter