With Smother, England’s Wild Beasts have created a beautiful third record that has been climbing the UK charts since its release. After giving the album a listen myself, I think it will be a huge success over here, too.

The record is laced with quiet synth riffs, piano ballad accompaniment and both strummed and finger-picked clean electric guitar. Distortion is also used often, but subtly, as well as strings now and then to emphasise chords and the usually moving bass line. The percussion is also excellent and adapts to perfectly suit each song.

The accompaniment is spectacular, but I think the best thing about this album is lead singer Hayden Thorpe’s falsetto. It's perfect, and slightly out of this world. Tom Fleming, the tenor vocalist, and Christ Talbot, the baritone vocalist, have rich voices that weave in perfectly with Thorpe’s to a create a unified, rich tapestry of sound. Thorpe’s voice is by far the standout; his honesty and raw talent took my breath away throughout the record.

The album also has a retro feel - specifically: it’s very 80’s. The synths add to this, and Thorpe’s voice has a kind of Wham! feel to it, though in the best way possible. A unique feature of Smother was the ability of Wild Beasts to combine raw sounding instruments such as drums and grand piano, along with some particularly dreamy synthesised sounds and some heavily distorted guitars. It all comes together so well, creating a seamless final product.

Favourite tracks of mine include "Loop the Loop", which involves low-key guitar and interesting percussion and would be excellent live, and "Burning", an epic synth-ridden tune with melding accompaniment and soaring harmonies.

The final track, "End Come Too Soon", is very fittingly titled. As the final guitar note in the song fades out, quickly becoming a mere memory, you know that you have just listened to an extraordinary album full of brilliant melodies, harmonies and instrumentals. Smother is one of those rare albums that you will never tire of listening to.

Review score: 9.5/10