Ought – Sun Coming Down

The ease with which Ought play at disorder is baffling. Slipping breezily from improv-infused chaos into tightly woven riffs, the Montreal-based four piece tease at sounding as if they've lost their way, only to press on the gas and reveal that they had a map the whole time. It's a strategy that's unsettling and disorientating, but it makes for a truly exhilarating listen.

Last year's debut More Than Any Other Day received emphatic praise for vocalist Tim Darcy's socially acute lyricism and the band's seemingly psychic intuition, and Sun Coming Down sees these qualities amplified. Written and recorded in just two months, the band's essence has distilled and it manifests in their newly relaxed grip on the wheel.

Loose and taut in equal measure, Sun Coming Down roars and whispers but never does it hit too hard. Post-punk in styling but decidedly left-field, even Darcy's proclamation, "I'm no longer afraid to die" is coloured with pathos, sounding both droll and worryingly acerbic. Ought provoke knee-jerk reaction and, in the next breath, demand that you analyse it. Intelligent, concise and fully in control – even when they sound in exuberant, entangled disarray.