Most angry bands start off angry then lose their power and passion. Whether through advancing years, disillusionment or simply through buffing their sound, the energy and fire just slowly seeps away. Bucking the trend, Dear and the Headlights have done it the other way round.

Their 2007 debut album, ‘Small Steps, Heavy Hooves’, was a charming, jangly affair with songs titled ‘Hallelujah’ and ‘Happy in Love’. Soft, sweet childlike folk rock.

Now, I don’t know what happened between that album and this to piss them off but that extra virile spark jumps out of the speakers and slaps you into submission before slipping back into brooding wistfulness. “It's just endless combinations of the same old shit”, yowls front man Ian Metzger on ‘Carl Soloman Blues’, a track that has a ghost-like whisper of Radiohead weaving through it. Like Arcade Fire, the band sound as if they had access to an antique instrument emporium due to the eclectic, layered and colourful nature of the album. For example, ‘Willetta’ segues between Spanish guitar serenades and church organ melodies whist still sounding anthemic. A self-deprecating indie-ish love song set in a Spanish taverna? Well it shouldn’t work…

The more ballad-y moments are gorgeously bittersweet, sharply contrasting with the energetic highs to create tracks that are intricate and sincere. ‘Parallel Lines’ is little more than guitar and vocals but its charm is in its delicate simplicity.

The question is which end of the anger spectrum do DATH head to next? Do they revert back to the Polyphonic Spree happy hippy end, or do they hurtle towards enraged folk-rawk? Either way it’s unlikely to be a complete disaster.