LIFE - North East Coastal Town

Usually lumped reductively in with the post-punk crowd, Hull's LIFE have always, in truth, been moving in their own direction and exploring existence away from the mainstream and the well-known.

'North East Coastal Town' continues that journey, then. Fiercely rooted in their hometown lives, it is the sound of a band stretching at any limitations placed on them externally. Recent single 'Duck Egg Blue' is the record's beating heart, packed with late-night tenderness and romantic gestures. Album closer 'All You Are' does a similar job of stripping away the veneer of expectation and shows the band moving in a whole new musical landscape.

Elsewhere, they show that they haven't lost their ability to whip up a storm of sounds on tracks like 'Big Moon Lake'. Excitingly though, this third album indicates that they can do it without repeating any of the tricks that got them here in the first place.