ALBUM REVIEW: Klaxons 'Love Frequency'

Four years of stinging silence is what followed Klaxons’ sound of experimental branching out on second album ‘Surfing The Void’. Combine the fact their debut album, ‘Myths of the Near Future’, won the prestigious Barclaycard Mercury Prize, cementing the boundary-pushing Londoners legacy, and you have a recipe for world domination. But, as quickly as they came, Klaxons mysteriously vanished.

The band’s adoring fans were at a loss and the seal of silence was not broken until two words were recently released, poised to change life as we knew it: ‘Love Frequency’. Klaxons’ comeback single, ‘There Is No Other Time’, from their forthcoming LP was projected across the planet by Zane Lowe in February. This dance floor stomping, electrifyingly unique track was the first taster from Klaxons’ fourth album and sent die-hard fans into frenzy. Although the days of indie-rock ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’ may be over, ‘There Is No Other Time’ – Klaxons first single in four years- creates nothing less than vivid fireworks.

Featuring the familiar, soaring vocal of Jamie Reynolds, creating an intensified electric explosion, Love Frequency’s opener, ‘A New Reality’, showcases the newly-transformed Klaxons sound in all its glory. Diverse seems to be the name-of-the-game, however, with the slick ‘Show Me A Miracle’ completely paralleling the sound of ‘A New Reality’. Think electric rave in a forest VS absent-mindedly drunk dancing alone at 3AM: these conflicting, flamboyant settings is why Klaxons new sound works so brilliantly.

Both ‘Liquid Light’ – a track which features a light nod to psychedelia, mixed with heavy, menacing electronic undertones – and ‘The Dreamers’ – a curdle of Adam Ant and dreamlike shoegaze – force the album to carve completely different paths in discovering where Klaxons’ new genre lies. Throwing both shoegaze and psychedielia into the mix, alongside the pure, euphoric dance track ‘Invisible Forces’ and the incredibly infectious ’80s inspired ‘Out Of The Dark’, Klaxons’ obscure, genre-dodging sound makes Love Frequency the most fascinating product the band has ever produced.

The triumphant, shining track of Klaxons’ phenomenal third studio album is delivered in the form of the electronically-driven ‘Rhythm Of Life’. The controlled madness that douses ‘Rhythm Of Life’ re-crowns Klaxons as one of the UK’s most exhilarating bands. Although the experimental motives of Klaxons’ genre-dodging album may be unknown to the listener, Love Frequency blows everything that ever preceded it out of the water. Long story short: Love Frequency has been worth the wait.

‘Love Frequency’, Klaxons’ fantastic, brand-new album, is available for pre-order from the official Klaxons website now.

Ella Scott