Montreal's No Joy initially sounds like a shoegaze band (a very good one at that), but it isn't long before you can hear what's happening under the surface, a work that subverts the expectations of where a latter-day approach to that genre might be able to take the listener.

On their second album (and first recorded in a fully-furnished studio) the band has flourished, delivering their finest set to date, rooted heavily in shoegaze ripcurls and devastating melody, finishing sentences whispered long ago with depth, variance and force.