Mother & The Addicts - Science Fiction Illustrated

Maturity has been the scourge of many a promising band. The transition from fancy-free scallywags to resolute role-models has seen the ballsy spontaneity of energetic indie imps like Supergrass or The Coral ravaged by adulthood. Some acts were just meant to stay young, and after the release of 2005's Take The Lovers Home Tonight it would seem fairly astute to place Glasgow's Mother & The Addicts in this bracket of puerility.

But new album Science Fiction Illustrated finds Mother and his troupe of zealots ripening deliciously. The jack-knife riffs and frenetic - often shambolic - structural clutters have transcended into deftly conspired new wave romanticism and although their debut's impulsive lust has been lost, a renewed sense of longevity is embedded within the album's intricate rhythmic arrangements.

A smattering of their former hedonistic selves lurks in the feverous carnage of What Were The Reasons but tracks like the Starsky & Hutch-esque Are Others and So Tough are so tightly entwined in a fusion of funk-bleeding guitar tussles and gulping synth strains you'd struggle to accredit such dashing tunesmiths to the demented Fuck Me Mummy I Feel Ugly.

Album highlight Going Native perfectly exemplifies this new direction; dark, brooding and escalating in ferocity, it's M&TA at their most lyrically brutal and sonically rapacious. Much like all the finest dames, Mother seems to only get better with age. [Billy Hamilton]