Sons And Daughters

Glasgow's Sons & Daughters tried to smooth down their rougher edges on their third album, The Gift, even bringing in Suede's Bernard Butler to produce, but to no avail. Mirror Mirror, however, is very much a step in another direction. Gone are the melodic, folky melodies they were just beginning to perfect, replaced by a sense of foreboding and drama that permeates each and every song. It isn't quite a complete shift, as they've always been capable of ratcheting up the tension, but this takes it to a whole new level. The songs have been stripped down, pushing both the driving rhythm and vocal interactions of Adele Bethel and Scott Paterson to the forefront. This is most obvious on jarring opener "Silver Spell," which has a tribal feel, and while the rest of the record isn't quite as interesting, it still makes for a cohesive collection of dark songs. And, even better, this is the music that Sons & Daughters always threatened to make.