Iceage - For Love of Grace & the Hereafter

Iceage’s sixth album ‘For Love of Grace & the Hereafter’ finds the Danish lifers chasing the same rush that’s powered them since their teens and trimming the excess to get there faster. Recorded back at Silence Studio - where they cut 2014’s ‘Plowing Into the Field of Love’ - the band kept things loose and instinctive, with lyrics finished just weeks before tracking. You can feel that immediacy in every corner.

‘Ember’ kicks things open with a grin, its hook of “I love you in an ominous way" easily the highlight of the entire album, built for a roomful of raised arms. Good luck getting that out of your head. 

‘Match Head Girl’ follows with a string of “do do do”s that feel gleefully tossed-off, and ‘The Weak’ turns into a proper knees-up. Early on, the record moves with a restless buzz that’s impossible to resist, and really, who'd want to?

That front stretch does a lot of heavy lifting, and while the second half still has its moments, the pace dips a touch. ‘Salve for Every Sore’ barrels forward with breathless lyricism, ‘Star’ glows with that romantic fatalism Iceage have honed for years, and ‘Lifetime’ and ‘Holy Water’ add texture, even if they don’t quite hit the same high.

There’s a lot packed in here and it’s all delivered with the confidence of a band who’ve spent nearly two decades figuring out how far they can stretch a song without it snapping.