Bleachers - Bleachers

Bleachers' self-titled fourth album hums into being, exhilaration rife in every single note. It feels like a fresh-faced ode to new beginnings. Those first crisply sunny days after a long winter, the nervous excitement of the first drink of the night, the dizzy tumble into the throes of love – 'Bleachers' captures it all from the very beginning of 'I Am Right On Time'. That feverish anticipation floods through the first track, assuring you that you may well be on the cusp of something bottling magic. It's an invitation to sit at the table with Jack Antonoff and hear the inner workings of his mind; soulful and sincere, you'd be foolish to pass this one up.

Bolting into 'Modern Girl', Bleachers provide an example of what they do best: have fun. 'Modern Girl' is riotous, a sax-heavy, groove-inducing track, swelling with sheer glee towards a chorus that makes you want to grab your friends and spin them around. It captures that giddiness of knowing that the night is young and there is infinitely more joy to be had. Those moments are frequent throughout the album, balanced by a pensive sentimentalism that seeps through the echoing vocals and liquid instrumentals of tracks like 'Me Before You'.

With wry smiles and the quintessential Jack Antonoff knack of making universal feelings sheen with a newfound magic, 'Isimo' shimmers with adoration, while 'Woke Up Today' is a dreamy, love-drunk escapade through crystalline harmonies, each listen prompting a need to sway along. Of course, it isn't all cast under a rosy haze – it's contemplative and grateful in equal parts, landing on a tone of peacefulness underneath that can only come from a period of growth.

Though those big, celebratory moments are aplenty, 'Bleachers' is a lesson in restraint in many ways, too. It favours tranquillity and spatiality just as much. They may excel at the crowd-ready, arm-waving hits, but there is a beauty in their stripped-back, spacious moments – 'We Are Going To Know Each Forever' is all light keys and anguished vocals, but it offers a cleansing contrast in the album.

'Bleachers' is the equivalent of the band settling into their skin and finding light at the end of the tunnel. Safe in the knowledge that ups and downs will come in equal measure, it chooses celebration and the magic of potential; revelling in the hope of what might come next and in appreciation for the love they possess right now, 'Bleachers' is a gorgeously tender return to form for the band.