IT has been nearly four years since the chilled out harmonic wailings of Warpaint were first captured on their debut album ‘The Fool’. Now, and with much anticipation, the quartet are set to release their second self-titled album. Has it been worth the wait? The simple and short answer is yes. In this second album they have managed to spice up their sound with slicker production and a more experimental attitude.

The album actually opens with a short introductory track aptly called intro. Here we get our first idea of the direction the group are trying to take their music. The track is an ambient instrumental that builds up in layers, capturing all the prettiness that Warpaint can offer, and without the use of their powerful singing.

After this the album starts in earnest, with the song Keep it Healthy, which is a track quite reminiscent of their previous album. It’s a powerful song that despite the busyness never loses the simple and catchy hook running through it.

The first single from the album – Love is to die – follows next. It sets a bit of a faster tempo than before but still has that spacey, relaxed vibe that Warpaint encapsulate. The chorus really stands out and grips you despite the confusing sentiments of the lyrics, “love is to die, love is to not die, love is to dance.”

The band teamed up with Nigel Godrich for this effort, with the former radiohead collaborator mixing the album. It’s hard to say how much direct influence he has had on the songs, but throughout the album you can hear touches of his style. The songs are extremely well crafted and production wise are on a par with anything that the big electronic artists are releasing today.

This is exemplified in tracks like Hi or Go in, which have a lot more of an ambient electronic groove to it and have shifted slightly away from the more guitar lead songs from their previous album like ‘shadows’.

Track 7 in the album is Disco/very. It is the most different and out there tune on the album, with a more loud and aggressive feel. The line ‘We’ll kill you, we’ll rip you up and tear you in two’ repeats over and over in the song. It’s a bit of a refrain from their usual elegant and beautiful sound, but it works well and really lifts the album back up before it can falter into a sort of dreamy maze. It could well be the stand out song on this album.

The album ends on the soft ballad that is Son. It drops all the intricacies of previous tunes and is more a raw showing of emotion. It’s actually quite a refreshing end, as there is the tendency to get a little lost when listening to this album and all its ebbs and flows. If there could be one criticism it might be that the more care-free and improvised structure to a lot of the songs loses the listener at stages. If you listen closely its brilliant to follow, but if you lose concentration for a moment, or get distracted from your listening, then some of the tracks can just pass you by without really grabbing your attention.

That said it is still a very worthy follow-up to ‘The Fool’. It’s more intricate, produced and experimental, but that’s a good direction for the band to take. It still has the heart and soul of previous works, but is shrouded a bit more in mystery and complexities.