When We Stay Alive vinyl

One in the eye for anyone who thought trip hop had nothing more to say, the fifth album from Minneapolis' Polica conjures audible shadows that seem to creep out from the tracks themselves. Listener immersed in a pared-back but deep audio realm packed with dubby reverb and solid, stepping drums. Throw in Channy Leaneagh's ever-spectacular vocal prowess, her words beautiful but broken, and you've got a genre masterclass.

Or at lest you do on numbers such as dark opener 'Driving', 'Fold Up' and its combination of tracking tempo and surreal echoes of menacing noise, or 'Feel Life''s lush, submersed lilting low ends. Elsewhere things emerge into poppier notes, 'Forget Me Now' is heartfelt balladry at its best, 'Sea Without Blue' is an icy choral joy, 'Steady' would sound at home on any collection of acoustic odes to loss and recovery, if it weren't for the occasional bleep, sample and electric guitar refrain.