Fatherson – Sum of All Your Parts

Sum of All Your Parts is the third album to be released by Scottish alt-rock trio, Fatherson. The album is raw and immersive, leaving soft but long-lasting impressions with the listener that intensifies with every listen. Each song sets a scene and through the extraordinarily visual use of lyrics, the band is able to conjure up dark imaginative spaces such as the garden that features in Oh Yes. Whether you find yourself whistling or humming this track (until its lyrics are internalised), it will haunt the mind for days.

Although there are echoes of their previous effort Open Book here, Sum of All Your Parts picks up from where it left off, this time taking the band’s sound in a bold new direction. Produced by Claudius Mittendorfer, who has collaborated with artists such as Muse, Interpol and Arctic Monkeys, the band employ the use of strings (which are a trademark of Mittendorfer’s big studio sound) to manipulate emotion. Throughout Sum of All Your Parts, we experience moments of real elation before desperately plummeting back to earth with bass and a whole spectrum of different sounds in-between.

Despite there being more of a musical score to it, Sum of All Your Parts still finds the space to showcase Ross Leighton’s powerful vocals, playing with the proximity and intensity of his voice in tracks such as The Rain and Ghost.

Although the singles released from the new album – Making Waves and Charm School – are markedly more upbeat, it will be the more slow-burning and anthemic tracks that linger, along with the band's ability to convey intense yet difficult to articulate emotions through their songs and lyrics which are urgent, bittersweet and at times heart-rending. [Amy Kenyon]

Listen to: Gratitude, The Landscape, Ghost