Album Review: The Oyster Murders - Winter Of The Electric Sun

Winter Of The Electric Sun begins sweetly with Ink, opening with some of the only acoustic guitar on the album, before the drum machine and keys kick in to give us the template for layered electronic pop that the band will predominantly follow for the rest of the tracks.

The simple drums/guitar/vocal intro of It Might Be Real is a welcoming breath of fresh air after the density of the first three tracks, and is the strongest song on the album. It's musically upbeat, which contrasts with the dark lyrical theme, and it's restrained; making the big, sweeping chorus more moving and catchy. It's difficult to get a real handle on this album, everything in it seems designed to draw in the listener – the whispered vocals, the anthemic choruses, the harmonies and lyrical repetition – but it all seems kind of hollow, with no thematic centre or strong melodic grounding in most of the tracks. However, there's some really strong imagery here, especially in Ink and Water In The Blood, which makes it even more frustrating how easily the songs slip through your fingers.

The overall feeling of Winter Of The Electric Sun is over-earnest and slightly cloying, which comes primarily from singer Grant Redgen's voice, which is pretty but whiny and starts to grate after a while. With song names like Dissent, Stay Warm By Burning Books and Spectre Of A Landfill, this album seems like it might be one of those rare modern releases with something to say. But if The Oyster Murders do have a message, it's too cloaked in layers of reverb and lyrical ambiguity to be completely effective.