The second album from Other Lives, ‘Tamer Animals’, is an album 16 months in the making. The band have pointed out that they’ve used this time to compose and edit an album that avoids the urge to pick up their favourite instrument and jam out 12 interchangeable rock songs.

It starts with a trio of songs which definitely achieve this. Trumpets stab and swell and then fold into string sections; playful time signatures skip and keep you wrong-footed. Where most bands would rely on conventional drumming to hold it all together, Other Lives use a collection of percussion. Unfortunately, this added to a lack of a clear direction, which made us wonder whether the album would start to sound cohesive.

The fourth track, ‘Tamer Animals’, answered that question. Layers of piano on top of new-wave drumming lead us into a sombre yet engaging song which can’t hide front-man Jesse Tabish’s ear for a tune. From here the album becomes more conventionally alt-indie, but in no bad way. The guitars develop a country edge that seems to be the default position for US lo-fi bands, but it feels natural in the hands of Other Lives (they’ve expressed a deep interest in the frontier history of Oklahoma, their home state) and even becomes playful in ‘Old Statues’ which has a knowingly spaghetti western twang. They don’t rely on guitars though – the track ‘Weather’ hangs around an affecting hook of jittery violins.

Winding through everything are vocals which are heartfelt but so muted it often sounds like Tabish is singing to himself. Half of the time it’s striking and sad but the other half it’s frustrating, like overhearing half of a stranger’s conversation. There’s no narrative to hook into and some lyrics seem picked just for how they sound.

Although the dogmatic approach to the song-writing is a bit distancing there’s clearly a lot of talent and passion here. Although this album isn’t instantly gratifying it’s definitely rewarding. -Toby Dore-