This is going to disappoint people. Not everyone, by any means. More than a few, though. The Presets' Apocalypso (2008) was a devastating masterpiece in stadium-sized electro-pop. The Sydney pair focussed quite explicitly on their songcraft and, as a result, delivered a record that was, in retrospect, perhaps more successful and mainstream-friendly than they ever actually wanted to be. The band's long-awaited third album Pacifica brings them back to their weirder, quirkier origins.

A more crafted record than their 2005 debut Beams, it nevertheless shares that album's jagged unpredictability and flair for perversion. Opener and lead single Youth In Trouble cascades and builds around an endless cycle of sequencers and house beats for six minutes without a proper drop; follow-up single Ghosts grafts sea-shanty lyrics, ambient synths and glitched-out vocal refrains over percolating hyper-kinetic footwork rhythms – highlight Push just kicks around in absurd, angular, sexual insanity.

Again, it's going to disappoint people. Not even a little bit. Though there are poppier numbers (Fall owes something to This Boy's In Love, for example), the difference between the band's previous record and Pacifica will jar many. Unfortunately so, really. On its own terms, Pacifica is a marvellous record. It's raw and weird and, in its own way, frustrating – but it is also so thoroughly, fantastically human. There's something unflinchingly honest and genuinely stirring about what The Presets have done here. It hits the heart hard.

It's not bad at all, really. Just different. This reviewer asks that, if you seek it out, persevere past your first impressions. It's definitely a grower.