Things In Herds - Nothing Is Lost

Far-flung Fence alumni, Things In Herds (aka Pete Lush and, er, Miss Ping) find the electro variant of their folk-pop largely jettisoned on this, their fourth album, and first for their own Gfolk imprint. So it’s fingerpicking pathos and whispered, bruised confessionals, all hermetically sealed in a fragile, heart-shaped glass bubble throughout. Lush’s plaintive vocals and sparse acoustic guitar dominate, whist Ping adheres to the less-is-more adage, with occasional backing vocals, piano and, on Before You Go, a ghostly theremin that could soundtrack a Mysteron love story and is simply brimming with generosity in dishing out the goose-bumps. In clumsier hands (step forward Snow Patrol), songs like As You Were Ending would ring hollow in an overtly heartstring-tugging, future movie-scoring kind of way, but the adherence to letting the songs, rather than the production, strike the emotional chord is Things In Herds’ trump card. [Darren Carle]