Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Crown And Treaty

Around the fourth track of this utterly glorious album - 'Arrived At Upside Down'  it's called - I ceased my habitual mind shenanigans of trying to spot the influences at work, instead allowing the rest of the nine tracks to take me on their own highly original journey. The phrase "Radiohead with balls and heart" persuaded me that I should stop over-thinking it and I'm glad it did as there will be plenty of time to excavate the outer reaches of these songs.

Like many I was a convert to Sweet Billy Pilgrim on two counts. That they take their name from a Kurt Vonnegut character meant that I would have listened to their re-mix of the shipping forecast with an open mind but also I'd come to love their second album 'Twice Born Men' (2009) and was growing impatient for its successor. The Mercury nomination this album received was, I guessed, the reason for the delay as they pored over very bar and syllable in an expensive studio paid for by the ensuing sales and royalties garnered by that record. That or they'd killed themselves after Speech Debelle scooped the award.

So the album was announced and set for release and then delayed and then a stream popped up and the real thing dropped through the letter box on Tuesday. I'd listened to it a few times already and it was absolutely clear by then that the music on it was far too big for my brain. I tweeted the band to say it reminded me of spatial Aussies The Triffids and got a reply that didn't piss on this inadequate observation. Relief gave way to the realisation that this is an incomparable set of songs which stand up to the most forensic scrutiny.

Where to start? I don't know. SBP's Wiki page refers to them as 'thrash pastel' which is better than I can do. The themes of being human, of failing and then trying again are couched in a lightness and a grace which constantly defy expectations, even after several listens. It is intense, funky, existential, poppy, indulgent, pastoral, spiritual, humble, respectful, anarchic. There is a track called 'Archaeology' - case closed.

It's an album that will change as I change. It has the textures to reveal themselves over months, perhaps years. It's the best £7.99 I've ever spent.