Album Review: Hungry Kids Of Hungary - You're A Shadow

You're A Shadow is a significantly better record than its predecessor. Highly (and deservedly) praised upon its 2010 release, Hungry Kids Of Hungary's debut album Escapades nevertheless looks somewhat immature in retrospect. A series of excellent songs written by a band of gifted songwriters unsure of their direction. You're A Shadow is different. It's precise, considered and, in its own way, heartbreaking.

Producer Wayne Connolly has gifted the band with a stellar sound and, in doing so, appears to have graced them with sufficient confidence to fully tease out their own aesthetic: a bittersweet haze of psychedelic harmony, tangled counter-melodies and unnervingly taut songcraft. Songs like Wasting Away are infinitely simpler in orchestration than cuts like Scattered Diamonds – but proportionately sharper and more sophisticated in construction.

Somebody Else's Fool, for example, oscillates around a classically simple hook but surrounds its central premise with fleeting bursts of guitar scree, swooping vocal harmonies and all manner of subtle instrumental detail. There are fewer components to the songs on You're A Shadow, but those components are sculpted with precision. Much has been made of the '60s influence of the record but it's most evident in the band's newfound economy of songwriting.

The heartbreak of the LP comes from its lyrics. Whereas previous Hungry Kids' releases seemed to prioritise storytelling and abstraction, You're A Shadow is heavier and more personal. Wasting Away, Do Or Die, When Yesterday's Gone – it's not a depressing record, but a sad one. Reflective, self-effacing and nostalgic. But, really, that heft is actually what makes it the band's best release to date.