On Plumb, Field Music have returned to more fragmented compositions, re-shaping the prog-rock gene so it has intermittent fits within the impatient set-list. But there is more here, as well as less. So while we only get 35-minutes (iTunes tells me that among the fifteen listed tracks some are only 40-seconds or 59-seconds long) there are more grandiose ideas at play. Wading in with weighty pianos, luxurious string arrangements, drums that barge through the mix like never before and a host guitars and bass-lines, the Brewis brothers are constantly running on multiple ideas.

So if you can ignore the occasional slip up, (Guillotine just sounds too much like a 70s standard to work here) there is much to admire. From the off we are introduced to the restless. The swirling string section within Start the Day Right is like some old Bacharach ballad. It’s soon beaten repeatedly by the fast-climbing notes and crashing rhythm, before falling back once more into its old-cinematic persona. The opposites attract in an inventive manner; the vocals choose their moments to intervene.

From Hide and Seek to Heartache is the moment the album demands more time from the brothers. It has more melancholy and heart within the strings and rolling offset rhythm to just be rudely interrupted with another new chord progression.

This record swings from the dramatically string-laden Ce Soir, to the nervous, beat-tripping and staccato guitar verse of Choosing Sides, and you can’t help but admire the puzzle of passages continually constructed here.

Of course with such purposeful indecision the melodies struggle to embed themselves, meaning you can be left impressed though untouched by the musical mastery. Yet such lush, solid and warm arrangements that can move so fast and so randomly should not be under-valued – the Brewis brothers are a studious pair to say the least.

-Zac Cohen-