"The Woe Betides are annoying. As with all their releases thus far, 'Never Sleep' sounded upon first listen to be a job well done. Great tunes, well produced, cohesive. A very good album.
Several days and several plays later, you find yourself waking up with 'Persian Punch' or 'Little Beliefs' inexplicably on repeat in your head.
Like many great albums it's only apparent just how good it is after living with it for a while. A sinister cocktail of heavy duty bass riffage, twin industrial beats (one part virtual, the other part Colonel Sexlife) grunge guitars and an abundance of melody that belies the somewhat unsettling (in a good way) lyrical narratives.
This album is teeming with ideas, thought and adept storytelling such as the mini-epic 'The Ape, The Owl And The Satellite', it's also packed with energy; see 'What Can't Be Taken Back' or the irrepressible 'Natwest Tower'; and it's gutsy as hell - 'This Head, This Heart' seems designed for testing your new speakers with.
'If you want your dreams to come true, don't sleep, there's not enough hours in the day.'
If that theory was put to the test in the making of this record then it bloody well works.
A veritable banquet of earworms. I'm off to get some Pro-Plus."