Album Review: Expatriate - Hyper/Hearts

You'd have been forgiven for forgetting that Expatriate still existed. Their debut album, In The Midst Of This, came out donkey's years ago and – appropriately enough considering their moniker – the group have long since relocated to Berlin. Well, at last, they return with a second effort. So was it worth the wait?

This is something that obviously concerned the band, as, having originally recorded the album in Wales and mixed it in London, they then set about re-producing, re-recording and remixing seven of the 11 tracks back in Berlin. The eventual result is an often high-energy record, with layered sounds and the hint of Berlin's electronic influence complementing a classic four-piece band dynamic. Bass-driven, fuzzy opener Miracle Mile is a good example of this, as is Love Away, with its New Order-esque danceability.

Elsewhere there are the kind of classically-structured anthems that you might expect. The way Do You Remember breaks down and then bursts back into an unapologetically grand, singalong chorus is like a U2 fan's wet dream. This, along with the inexplicably long and noodly Easier and It's You, completes a disappointing mid-album hat-trick that drags proceedings into an uninspiring indie-rock lull. While Hyper/Hearts struggles slightly to pull itself out of this in its latter stages, there are still a couple of exciting moments that follow, like Skool, which sees vocalist Ben King yell, “I went to school but I don't know shit.”

While it's hard to see this record winning the band hordes of new followers, largely it demonstrates Expatriate doing what they do well, and fans of their previous material will likely see it as a welcome return.