True [CD]

Amazing album that stakes out a totally unique place in the dream-pop landscape. Combining the sonic guitar-driven sound of bands like Pale Saints and Boo Radleys with stellar song-writing, peerless arranging and lovely 60s-tinged vocal harmonies, Violens have managed to create a truly new sound. Tunes like "Totally True", and "Der Microarc" are at once visceral and ethereal, typical of an album that delivers some of the most accomplished, powerful and challenging pop you'll hear this year.