Unravelling
This Glasgow-based group stayed home to record their third studio album, *Unravelling*, with producer Paul Savage, who’s worked with almost everyone in Scottish music royalty, from Teenage Fanclub to Franz Ferdinand and Mogwai. The group’s confidence is palpable, leading to multilayered beauty on “Safety in Numbers.” Singer Adam Thompson is completely committed, whether it be the moody and desolate “Disconnecting,” the melodic and poppy “Peaks and Troughs,” or the slowly building grandeur of “A Part of It.” Emotions run hot on the churning “Moral Compass,” where Thompson and Michael Palmer’s guitars build cathedrals of sound.
The band present us with Unravelling, easily their most accomplished album, and a new direction in songwriting for the band. Recorded in Glasgow at the infamous Chem19 Studios with Paul Savage (The Twilight Sad, Franz Ferdinand, Mogwai), the album focuses all the power and fury of the Jetpacks to a finely controlled point, crafting from both youthful catharsis and skillful maturity. The band’s spring US tour proved that as much as fans love the chest rattling crescendos of their catalog, they’re equally ready for the bit of sheen that’s found its way to the forefront of the new songs. Particularly instrumental to the widening sound is the addition of new member and longtime friend Stuart McGachan, a multiinstrumentalist described by the band’s Adam Thompson as “an accomplished keys, piano and guitar player as well as having a lovely little singing voice,” all of which added greatly to the development of the band’s new direction. Live, the five-piece setup only adds to the power and bombast that echoes from the stage, but in the studio the new flexibility has lead to an album with widescreen vision, supple emotional shading and particularly catchy hooks laced throughout.
We Were Promised Jetpacks learned not to pull their punches on In the Pit of the Stomach, and on Unravelling, they find more sophisticated ways to harness that unleashed energy.
The effervescence of youth can work wonders on a debut album but how often does such vim dissipate on subsequent works? Edinburgh’s We Were Promised Jetpacks are, perhaps, this formula in reverse.
We Were Promised Jetpacks are exploring new territory, and though at first glance it doesn't seem to play to the band's post-punk, indie rock strengths, there is a diverse album, all tightly held together by a theme of unwavering, ominous uncertainty, waiting for those willing to put it through a couple of listens.