The Phantom Band – The Wants

Following on from last years’ blindsiding debut Checkmate Savage, feral Glaswegian sextet The Phantom Band have wasted precious little time in surfing the golden crest it produced with sophomore effort The Wants. Pitched somewhere between Leonard Cohen and Looney Tunes, album two is a darker affair, seemingly informed by classic literature as much as The Beta Band and Neu.

Opening highlight A Glamour picks up its predecessor's baton of synthesized ‘whoops’ and ragtag percussion before morphing into a chugging, riff-laden coda. The drip-fed, glockenspiel chill of Everybody Knows It’s True is another early gem, the band at their most inventive and, importantly, their most immediate. The Wants’ mid-section suffers a little in tempo but its end triumvirate, particularly Into The Corn’s deathly apocalyptic parable, stands as the lads best running streak yet. Truly, The Phantom Band should be up there with saltires and shortbread as a vital national export. [Darren Carle]