Sky Larkin: The Lark Ascending

When Sky Larkin released their debut album The Golden Spike early in 2009, they were barely known outside of their Leeds hometown. What followed is remarkable: they've toured the US twice in one year, become darlings of the music press, and generally fulfilled the dream of every pub-playing garage band that ever existed. It didn't harm that The Golden Spike was released by Wichita Records, home to the likes of Bloc Party and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

A year on and the indie trio have reconvened in record time to deliver Kaleide, another invigorating set of punk-pop morsels, which wears its heart firmly on its sleeve, and ranks easily among their best work. Songs like Still Windmills and Anjelica Huston are crushingly good, recalling the best bits of fellow British indieists Ash and Angelica, while boasting an energy and immediacy which assures they won't go unnoticed.

Larkin's lead singer Katie Harkin explains what Kaleide, aside from being a kind of psychedelic telescope, is all about: "The Golden Spike marked the fusion of the three of us becoming a unified band, and with Kaleide we wanted to reflect on that collision, find the space between the ties we have to each other," she says. "I also realised how many references to light there are in the record and how scientific I can be when talking about emotions."

The album was written inside the crypt of an old Yorkshire church, which Larkin's friends – the band Hope And Social – had reappropriated as a practice room. "It used to be a Sunday school," drummer Nestor Matthews confesses. "There are kids' handprints all over the walls, only a little bit creepy!"

John Goodmanson – who produced The Golden Spike and has also helmed albums by the likes of Death Cab For Cutie, Sleater-Kinney and Blonde Redhead – was re-recruited for Kaleide. The group flew to his Seattle studio to record the album. So what does a renowned producer like Goodmanson bring to the mix beside kudos? Harkin puts it simply: "Two very good ears, a very relaxed temperament and nice beers."

There's much more to the songs on Kaleide than their surface simplicity might suggest. Lead single and album opener Still Windmills, Harkin says, is about "seeing something in someone that they don't see in themselves, that potential energy," while the electrifying Anjelica Huston is both a reference to the facial lighting of said actress in The Addams Family films, and also a way for Harkin to express an overwhelming emotion.

With the new album release comes the slog of touring and promotional duties, a task which Sky Larkin don't seem to find too burdensome: "We're lucky enough to have been all over the world playing our songs and honing our skills as a band," Matthews says, adding that they are 'really excited' to be playing at the Edinburgh festival later this month, because "Scottish people aren't afraid to enjoy themselves." It's a boilerplate response, but let's hope that they mean it.