Despite battling with nervous exhaustion, various relationship troubles, and a dumping from former label Rough Trade, Everything's the Rush,
Delays' first release since signing to Fiction Records, shows they haven't lost any of their optimistic spirit with 12 tracks that positively revel in their trademark brand of Technicolor-fueled indie pop. Perhaps inspired by the Sierra Nevada mountain range surroundings the album was recorded in, the follow-up to 2006's criminally ignored
You See Colours is perhaps their most cinematic to date, as producer Youth (
the Verve,
Primal Scream) provides his usual orchestral sheen on the gorgeous swooning
Urban Hymns-esque ballad "Pieces," the melancholic folk of "Jet Lag," and the widescreen Celtic-tinged stomp of "Touch Down." But those enamored with the sun-soaked jangly guitar pop of their debut,
Faded Seaside Glamour, should still find plenty to admire here, whether it's the mock-classical strings and nursery rhyme melodies of lead single "Hooray," a deceptively personal account of lead singer Greg Gilbert's OCD; the bombastic '80s-tinged stadium rock of "Girl's on Fire"; or the rousing feel-good "woah-woah" choruses of bonus track "The Earth Gave Me You." But for some reason, Gilbert's gutsy falsetto tones -- the band's most distinctive secret weapon -- are kept to a bare minimum, and while the three numbers featuring brother Aaron on vocals -- the suitably MOR ode to laziness "One More Lie In," the
Muse-inspired prog rock of "Friends Are False," and the quirky indie disco of "No Contest" -- are admirable attempts to progress their sound, his slightly irritating Mockney delivery only highlights just how valuable an asset their usual frontman is. Everything's the Rush is still a cut above most of their mid-noughties contemporaries' recent offerings, but with nothing as dreamlike as "Nearer Than Heaven" or as pulsating as "Valentine," it's hard to shake the feeling that
Delays' much-deserved but elusive breakthrough moment might have passed them by. It'll be interesting to see whether their sunny disposition can withstand an album number four. ~ Jon O'Brien