Pitchfork

On their past two releases, Scotland's Sons & Daughters staked out a unique sound built around tense rhythm, static harmony, hints of Scottish folk, and strong male/female spoken/sung vocal interplay. On This Gift, they give back a bit of that distinctive ground, more frequently adopting a more conventional rock approach, while Adele Bethel moves into more of a frontwoman role, taking nearly every note of lead vocals. Scott Paterson, who once played deadpan foil to Bethel with his dry lead vocals, is now mostly focused on the guitar and backing vocals. This doesn't compromise the band's quality much, though-- it just gives them a somewhat different look that's backed up by slightly brighter production from ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler.

In fact, I'd say that if anything, re-structuring their approach has given them a bit more songwriting leeway, and this album has bigger choruses and better riffs than its predecessor, 2006's Repulsion Box. One thing it doesn't have, though, is any kind of lower gear-- the band is pretty much all-out the whole way, which can be a little tiring. Even places where they let you think they're dialing back, like the wispy, piano-backed intro to "Split Lips", soon give way to fast tempos led by David Gow's aggressive drums.

While they've given up some of the folk dual lead elements that were once their calling cards, they have hit on a unique way of adding memorable choruses to their songs, augmenting the chorus lyrics with big, melodic phrases built around simple words like "yeah" or non-words like "oh" and "ah." It sounds simple, but they make some huge hooks harmonizing on "oohs" and "aahs." These bigger hooks play into the overall streamlining of their sound, and it's not hard to imagine a few of these songs crossing over. "Darling" has a bit of a "Town Called Malice" feel to it (albeit at a much higher tempo), with Bethel's layered vocals creating the band's poppiest texture yet.

The band wraps it up with one of its best songs yet, the fuzzed-out rocker "Goodbye Service", which backs Bethel up with little falsetto harmonies and makes the most out of the sour tone of Paterson's guitar-- it's like a harder update on something that could have come out of Boston in 1968, and there's even a psychedelic breakdown. It's a good closer for such a loud and propulsive album, an LP that finds the band no worse for the wear after modifying its sound to go more directly for the jugular. The biggest critique is that as an album, This Gift is perhaps too far in the red too much of the time, but even that complaint is tempered by the fact that the ride is so good.