Angelic, melodic, almost spiritual-sounding — they’re all terms I could use to describe any London Grammar album, but ‘Californian Soil’ is their latest drop of chilled indie gems and it ticks the ‘calm and collected’ box again.

I can’t openly state I’m some unfaltering London Grammar fan, but I can applaud their talents and have my favourites among their back catalogue. What I will say, though, is it’s worth trundling through this record in order to enjoy its flow — at least at the beginning, because it does taper off a tad towards the latter half. 

While ‘Intro’ is as soft and calm as its name suggests, it’s followed by the gentle rumblings of ‘Californian Soil’, which has a sort of mellow house vibe — and it’s certainly a knockout track. ‘Missing’ and ‘Lose Your Head’ are stellar, with sparkling choruses to match well-paced beats. ‘How Does It Feel’, ‘Call Your Friends’ and ‘I Need the Night’ also pepper the album with bursts of big-bucks tunes — the kind of things I was anticipating from them, anyway. 

All in all, the rest isn’t too much of a departure from their usual standard. It’s just a bit on the steady side for me.

If you only download one track, let it be: ‘Lose Your Head’