Saxon Shore

What happens when two-thirds of your band — who are also the main songwriters — wants to leave? If you’re Saxon Shore, you let them and continue on with the name in tandem with a crap-load of optimism. While the title here acknowledges that rocky history, the comeback is even better as their last EP, Luck Will Not Save Us From a Jackpot of Nothing, which had intriguing ideas but nothing to phone home about. But, add in months of hard work and the luck of getting Dave Fridmann to produce your record and voila! — An absolutely "fan-fucking-tastic” record. Post-rock to the bone, every ringing guitar echoes out over the crash of cymbals and undulating guitar and, even better, it seems fresh and exciting rather than a rehash. Fridmann knows how to make things big and exciting, and by god, every song sounds like a monster at its apex. While this album works best as a full-length, which is a rarity in this digital player world, "Isolated by the Secrets of Your Fellow Man” is the giant of this recording, making the instruments swell like a shaken sea. Beautiful, big and original, this album can’t be about death, as these songs are as fully alive as you can get.