‘RIP it up and start again’;  equal parts a phrase ingrained into the pop culture landscape by Orange Juice and a concept that leaves a band’s fanbase proceeding with caution and more than a hint of wariness. When Scottish folk five piece Admiral Fallow proclaimed that they’d renounced the ways of old in a favour of a fresh perspective, they created an air  both of trepidation and intrigue around their third record Tiny Rewards. Not only have Admiral Fallow produced another excellent record, but it is in fact their most accomplished and awe inspiring to date.

Beginning in emphatic fashion with swelling guitar, baroque influenced piano and dense vocal performances, ‘Easy As Breathing’ is a welcomed reminder of the power of the band at their full capacity, despite the manner in which they’ve waded unfazed into new realms of the musical spectrum.

With almost militaristic percussion driving the proceedings during its middle section, they soon unveil a series of wonderfully tender harmonies before the track’s central guitar gleefully surges back into the foreground.

As often explained by the band in recent months, the fashion in which they composed this collection was vastly different and unprecedented from what had transpired previously; writing as a band as opposed to confining themselves to adapting the raw material from frontman Louis Abbott.

‘Evangeline‘ highlights the band’s well-oiled, dynamic sound. Towing the line between gentle and foreboding in tone due to the inclusion of a motorik style bassline that is contrasted by more restrained guitar, the result is a sound which ventures towards bands such as Arcade Fire and The National.

The persistent synth that recurs throughout ‘Happened In The Fall’ is particularly demonstrative of their unwillingness to rest on their laruels and reamin within a tightly sealed box that many fans and critics seemed content to place them within. Prevalent upon the track is the vocal work of Louis Abbott and Sarah Hayes, who respectively remain as poignant and vital as they ever did; their affectations clutching at your heart strings as they bare themselves through their performances.

‘Good Luck’ harbours an imposing rock-based sound which intermingles with the more traditional elements that are associated with their output. However the piano loops of ‘Holding The Strings’ create something which is deeply complex and intensifies towards a thrilling climax that the world’s finest stadium bands would be envious of.

‘Sunday’ is one of the record’s most melancholic moments despite the delicate and twinkling instrumentation, following a narrative of a protagonist that it perpetually wrestling with the goings-on of their mind. The reassuring electric guitar and its accompanying bursts of warm keys are truly wondrous, while tracks such as ‘Some Kind Of Life’ and ‘Carousel’ manage to capture the kind of magical fusion of their earlier material with the ambitious nature of the album that fans will immediately gravitate towards. 

The woodwind instruments that have long been adopted by the group initially construct a luscious base for album closer ‘Seeds’, before eventually being contorted and warped in a experimental manner as they hurtle towards the record’s final note.

Overall, Tiny Rewards documents Admiral Fallow re-entering the fray as a band revitalised; and one which has only began to scratch the surface of the depths of creativity that their new writing process has afforded them.