Album Review: The Temper Trap - Thick As Thieves

The Temper Trap have gone back to basics on their third studio album. Thick As Thieves is their first release since the departure of guitarist Lorenzo Sillitto in 2013, yet the now-four-piece sounds not so much reduced as reborn, trading in the dense and diverse aural experiments that characterised 2012's self-titled album for a more direct, but no less distinctive, stadium-pop sound.

Don't for a second mistake simplicity for taking it easy though, as the new album manages to seem both more pared back and more epic than its predecessor. The strong melodies and harmonies, singalong choruses and expansive layers of instrumentation suggest The Temper Trap have reaped the creative benefits of a renewed focus on the fundamentals of songwriting and production.

The opening title track sets the pace, with Toby Dundas' sledgehammer kick drum and Dougy Mandagi's caterwauled refrain "Making noise and shouting" defining the track as an instant anthem. So Much Sky and Burn raise the emotional stakes, with the former's chunky bass and ebullient cries of "oh-way-oh-way-oh", and the latter's Achtung Baby-worthy guitar sounds and super-sized chorus seemingly custom-made to lift the roofs off arenas.

The album is unrelentingly, but not detrimentally, upbeat. "If we have to fall, we'll fall together," Mandagi declaims on Fall Together, while, on Alive, they decide simply that "It feels so good/So good to be alive", and prove the point with a highly danceable drum'n'bass combo. Following the sting of separation from Sillitto, the band finds positivity in unity, and brings us along for the ride.