The Beat Surrender

French group Underground Railroad follow up last years spikey new wave meets punk effort Twisted Trees with another long player on One Little Indian Records, released at the end of September and called Sticks And Stones.

As an album it’s clear that the band have advanced musically, ambition wise and in their song-writing, Sticks And Stones is an absolute joy of fuzzy guitars colliding into a wall of sound, male / female vocals alternating across the ten tracks to create an album that hums with an audiable confidence.

Although it’s by no means mainstream and locked fully into melody, it’s a less brazen effort than the debut, it’s all the better for this measured approach as the pyschedelic hooks get under your skin, you’ll find yourself humming along to the tracks, you won’t understand half of the lyrics as they do leave me a little baffled in places, don’t worry about that though just sit back and enjoy an album that gets better with every listen.