This Is All Yours

Alt-J go, 'where rock fears to tread,' these days. Quite how a band like Alt-J managed to not just 'get off the ground', but actually take to the skies with so little apparent effort, is a mystery. Record labels have become champions of the mediocre - and yet Alt-J seem to ignore this command and deliver a jagged, atonal, obscure, psychedelic music that features the most obscure lyrics since 'The Canterbury Scene' spewed out 'Hatfield and the North' or Robert Wyatt. But somehow, some 40 odd years later, and 260 miles north of Canterbury, Alt-J has managed to deliver 'This Is All Yours' no trouble.

Admittedly, there is their nod to The Kings of Leon in 'Left Hand Free', showing that when pushed they can deliver a sparkling piece of faux Americana, to bring in the punters. But it's pieces like the charming 'Garden of England' and the dreamlike, nightmare of a subject in 'Choice Kingdom' that make one realise that they are in a very different territory to 'The Arctic Monkey's' or 'Foo Fighters' template style of album making.

Joe Newman's vocal range and delivery is like watching a daring hi-wire act, will he reach that note? Is that actually the right note in the first place? Isn't he embarrassed about singing like that live? These are all questions that have to be shelved while the song is in motion, because like all great stylists, it's about the originality of the moment, and that's something Alt-J get right over and over.

But having credited them with a near genius for music making I feel I must squash together the penultimate four tracks on this album, 'Warm Foothills, Gospel of John Hurt, Pusher and Bloodflood', and question the wisdom of having four such similar songs in a row? Four rather aimless sounding songs, they all start quietly, in that choral, churchy kind of style that Alt-J have excelled at, the tracks build to a chugging middle, then wander off into the middle distance... (I wouldn't be so heartless as to call them 'filler', but the fact that it has crossed my mind makes me wonder if I will still like this second half of the CD in 10 years) Despite my criticism I would rate this album 8.5 out of 10 - and if I am still washing up to it in 10 years time I will probably give it the full bifta...