Thee Oh Sees – Drop

With rumours of a split now thankfully put to bed, John Dwyer and pals get back to doing what they do best: making ear-splitting garage rock that feels like the greatest idea anyone’s ever had. First track Penetrating Eye gets off to a dream start, with its molten riffage occupying that mythical promised land between Sabbath and The Stooges. It’s soon revealed to be something of a trick, however – the explorative kosmische of Encrypted Bounce places us on a more thoughtful path, before Drop takes a sharp turn towards more cerebral territory.

Skronks’n’hollers drown Put Some Reverb On My Brother in thrilling cacophony, while the prog-scented The King’s Noise might just be the closest that the razorwire-tense Oh Sees have ever got to ‘pastoral.’ If this all seems a tad less immediate than the raucous psych-pop of last year’s Floating Coffin, it’s by no means inferior. They’ve donned their thinking caps, and it’s a look that suits ‘em just fine. [Will Fitzpatrick]