Cavetown - Running With Scissors

Cavetown is a songwriter who started out making tender, bedroom-sized songs and somehow ended up becoming a generational constant. On 'Running With Scissors', his latest album, he sounds more curious and playful than ever, pushing his sound in a bunch of different directions and clearly having a great time doing it.

Early on, Cavetown signals that this is not a one-lane album. 'Cryptid' is immediately sonically interesting, leaning harder into rock textures than you might expect, with a strange, specific energy that almost flirts with nu metal. 'Rainbow Gal' keeps things bright and buoyant, before 'Baby Spoon' delivers one of the album's funniest moments: "I wanna be your baby spoon" is a genuinely silly lyric, delivered with such sincerity that it's charming.

If there's one track that feels like the album's big swing, it's 'NPC'. It's a proper highlight: dynamic, dramatic and catchy as fuck, building into something that feels epic without losing Cavetown's emotional warmth. 'Reaper' and 'Straight Through My Head (DO IT!!!)' keep the momentum up, while 'Tarmac' is pure fun, breezy and confident in a way that suits this louder, more outward-facing version of Cavetown.