Album Review: Hailer - Another Way

Since their debut 2010 album Good Canyon, Sydney's Hailer have undergone a seriously noticeable transformation. Their second effort is still rooted in the pop-ified pysch-rock of the band's earlier catalogue, but what Another Way brings to the plate is more of an emphasis on the pop elements that underline their first offering, which they've then topped off with a touch more edge than before. The sounds are richer, the songs are catchier – simply put, there's a great deal this lot have done right this time around.

We're presented with a bit of a red herring at the album's open. The prolonged introduction of Stroke Of The Night eerily bleeds into the rest of the track, keeping the creepy factor alive until the close of the equally dark Spooky Clams. Beyond these two wonderfully unnerving numbers, the remainder of the album is predominately bright, boppy and occasionally laden with playful grittiness (as evidenced in Postcard and the more assuredly raw Blue Star).

Hailer do that pop thing with immaculate conviction. From the singular, devil-may-care “ooh” sung lowly beneath a constant tambourine in Anyway I Can to the legitimately cool use of the word “groovy” in Tina, the album carries all the unadulterated bad-assery of bands like The Brian Jonestown Massacre with an injection of Jarvis Cocker's pop sass.

With the return to the more sinister realms of tracks one and two in the album's finale Two Feet, the album wraps itself up neatly. What makes Another Way so impressive is both its variety and its arrangement; these elements shed light on what a damn fine bunch of musicians Hailer are.