United Fruit – Eternal Return

It’s all a matter of opinion and perspective, of course, but United Fruit’s second long-player Eternal Return seems likely to divide opinion among those who took their ferocious 2011 debut to heart. Where Fault Lines was all barbed guitar lines, incendiary choruses and monolithic noise, Eternal Return is a move toward maturity, inviting platitudes like ‘accomplished songwriting’ and ‘marked production’.

They wear these new dynamics well on tracks like Cog In The Wheel, a soaring anthemic centrepiece with enough of the Glaswegian quartet’s characteristic bite to temper it. Even initially underwhelming cuts like lead single Where The Sun Beats Down improve with repeat visits. 

Indeed some of the differences between United Fruit old and new are down to the knob-twiddling details – vocals are stronger in the mix while most everything else has been sanded down considerably. The melodies are certainly more pronounced, but overall this feels like an album where the reach often exceeds its grasp, particularly when compared to the taut half-hour run of their fantastic entry. Still, you've got to applaud the ambition.