TOY - Clear Shot

Rating:

The band's most coherent and confident album to date.

Smothered in reverb and a dream like haze, ‘Clear Shot’, is TOY upping their game to make a mark. While it has all the components to pull it off, at times it can come across as mildly devoid of presence due to the enormity of the haze.

There's a certain grandiosity to the songs, particularly in the closer ‘Cinema’, which builds from a slow, jangly guitar strum to a chaotic crescendo over a series of increasingly dramatic turns. Getting to this point can feel like a long slog, but the reward is worth the wait.

The strongest moments come when TOY allow the instrumentation to cut through on its own and stand tall, particularly during the chorus section of opener ‘A Clear Shot’, as the guitar cuts through with full tremolo and moves across the soundscape.

Billed as the band's most coherent and confident album to date, TOY have proved they can easily compete with the levels of expertise found in late 80s post-punk bands, they just need to ensure they can focus even further. Steven Loftin