Shield Your Eyes - Volume 4 (2011)

Country: UK
Genre: Mathrock, Indie.
Label: Function Records
Tracks: 9
Length: 39'

“Volume 4”, as the title suggests, is their fourth opus. Their last, “Theme From Kindness”, though an excellent record was for me a slight stagger backwards from the extremely high standards they established prior to that, for all that it featured “Aves”, possibly their finest song to date; I initially feared they had hit the glass ceiling, and after having been so constantly active for so long, that would have been very understandable. “Volume 4”, however, slaps that theory right into the grave; not only is this the best record they have put out to date, it’s probably the best record you, I or Uncle Tom Cobbley will hear all year.

Their already-established penchant for ripping apart the self-imposed limits many generic bands operate within is taken onto new heights here. The extraordinarily talented guitarist and vocalist Stef has not only still further polished and extended his utterly unique playing style, his voice sounds more soulful and more forlorn than ever before. “Volume 4” is less of a stride forward than a leap measured in light years, and will leave their compatriots and peers gasping in their wake. It’s like someone just discovered a whole new set of colours, brighter and more beautiful than ever before. There is such an astonishing breadth of ideas and textures here, yet the arrangements are so instinctive and perfectly balanced that you instinctively know that there is nothing planned about them. Shield Your Eyes have broken through to the other side and discovered how to simply project their souls directly into their musical compositions. It’s breathtakingly powerful and simply ticks every box to be considered great music – incredibly musically deft, utterly unlike anything else, sonically stunning and dripping with soul. All it will take is one set at the SXSW festival, or for a copy of this record to land on Thurston Moore’s desk, and they will find themselves hitting the stratosphere.

All of which just made it even more imperative that you, world, get off your arse and discover for yourselves just how amazing SYE now are. Destroy your record collection – this is all you’re going to need from now on. And go see them live, before they become hipper than a hipperpotamus in low slung jeans and it becomes impossible to get a ticket. If you don’t, just don’t say I didn’t warn ya… --Subba - Cultcha

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