It's very rare in this line of work that a song will slip through your front door and into your stereo and genuinely shock the life into you. Manchester Orchestra's 'Shake It Out' is one such song. It's essentially a song of two halves, the first half serves up a grinding, energetic, hook laden pop song which wouldn't have sounded out of place on any of Biffy Clyro's last albums and would have worked almost as well if given the traditional verse / chorus / verse structure. Atlanta (is it just me or does it seem that most of the great American bands come from either Atlanta, Portland or New York/New Jersey?) natives Manchester Orchestra though follow in the footsteps of indie mavericks such as Modest Mouse and My Morning Jacket in subverting expectations as the song folds elegantly into an epic, prolonged bridge section which elevates the song into another stratosphere entirely!

Front-man Andy Hull possesses a voice which speaks beyond his years, there's a grizzled elegance behind even the most subtle phrases, a rare asset indeed. The band are a powerful, tight unit who play off each other wonderfully with a sparing but effective use of epic keyboards sounds and some daring dynamic shifts.


On first play-through this blew my socks off and that's not a phrase I use lightly, maybe it's just the comparably dull music that has been inflicted on these ears lately, or maybe my mask of indifference is slipping. At any rate 'Shake It Out' comes highly recommended, now I'm off to buy the album.