The Competition (Deluxe Edition) vinyl

The return of Baltimore's Lower Dens - now with half as many members as last time we caught up with them - could have been entitled "The Contrast", although that may be stating the obvious. As anyone familiar with the outfit's combination of heartfelt vocal delivery, dream pop ambience and brutally honest socio-political commentary will understand. It's a unique combination for a band that, on first contact, sound like they should be all about the love songs. Then again, there's an air of jilted love, or at least just jilted, about numbers like "Young Republicans", sliding into waves of powerful synth as Jana Hunter waxes lyrical about the world burning. While many of today's pop bands nod to the 1980s, Lower Dens are particularly convincing given the decade was, for many, defined by the death of America's big dream and a realisation that societal progress could be a 20th Century myth. Uptempo but stark stuff.