Dananananaykroyd – There Is A Way

With the gut-punching intensity of their 2009 debut and those kinetic, literally bone-breaking shows, it’s perhaps not surprising that Dananananaykroyd needed a little breather. Who better to recapture their lightning in a bottle than one-time Glassjaw and At the Drive-In producer Ross Robinson? Opening track Reboot warms up the jets for a good minute before the duelling vocals of Calum Gunn and John Baillie Jr hit the boost button, giving that familiar adrenaline shot that Hey Everyone! had in truck loads.

Whether by dint of the smoother production (again, it’s all relative) or the songs themselves, there’s less immediacy to There Is A Way as a whole but it’s one hell of a grower. Seven Days Late stands as one such highlight, initially unassuming and lost in the later folds of the album but punching through the psyche with repeated listens until you find your finger feverishly hitting ‘repeat’. It happens again and again; All Us Authors, Make A Fist, even the goofy Think & Feel all get under the skin eventually. If we count this as round two for the self-styled ‘fight pop’ exponents then There Is A Way has delivered another knock-out blow. [Darren Carle]