At first, when I heard the mellow techno dance-y dub of the album's opener We Can Be Ghosts I was happy to hear the vocals had been nowhere near an auto-tune and that appears true for the whole album which is of course a good thing.
The album is apparently at least notionally about a block of flats in Peckham called Parklands where HIATUS lived in but encompasses more than that and to be honest it's nothing like Peckham sounds to me. It is, however, really laid back and chilled throughout with Cloud City being a cool song of longing for a lost love that floats on simple beats.
The feeling that you may be floating downstream on a raft is there on River. It simply washes by as we float away gently as Shura sings, almost lulling us to relax even more.
Parklands, the title track, is also one of the ones to grab me. It is a collaboration with the devotional call and response group Kirtanyas and while it may be sung in Sanskrit it reminded me of the Arctic-based group Hedningarna in the way it wraps the chanted lyrics and other-worldliness of a slow, cold as ice arctic dance groove.
The longer the album goes on the more I am convinced it would work wonderfully as almost dinner party backing and not in a bad way, either, simply creating an atmosphere to relax and chill out and drink some red wine with some candles burning as Returning plays.
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As the almost chilled beyond belief vocals come in every once in a while to break up the cool piano breaks on As Close To Me As You Are Now I wasn't prepared for the church-y vocal choir that then comes in and takes the tune to a totally different place. It's a very cool tune indeed. Even if it veers a little too close to Enigma territory it does it so well it doesn't matter.
The album closes with Tiny Doors: a tune with beautiful understated piano parts taking us to the sort of expected mellow conclusion this album is all about.
It's easy to understand why Hiatus have been picking up radio play from among others Steve Lamacq, Annie Nightingale and Eddie Temple Morris, because while it isn't at all the kind of music I tend to listen to it really grabbed me and made me listen.
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