Album Review: The Wombats - Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life

Ten years ago, when The Wombats dropped Let's Dance To Joy Division — a superb, multi-layered celebration of gloriously sugared indie pop — some wrote them off as a short-term novelty act. Surely three minutes of bouncy brilliance couldn't possibly be sustained for long.

Time has proven the Liverpudlian scallywags to be big time, long-term players but this fourth album finally shows some signs of slowing down. 

It's to be expected, really. All three Wombats are now family men, with singer Matt 'Murph' Murphy based in LA, drummer Dan Haggis in London and guitarist Tord Knudsen in Oslo, so writing was a prolonged individual affair culminating in a two-week recording binge. That separation has robbed the LP of some of their spunk with only Cheetah Tongue and Lemon To A Knife Fight threatening to punch a hole in the ceiling as you jump on your bed like a ten year old.

Ice Cream's subdued bass nods to New Order's Age Of Consent but, like much here, it uncharacteristically melts into the background. Redemption comes via twinkly U2-sy ballad I Don't Know Why I Like You But I Do, but it ends with a rare question for a Wombats album: Was that it!?