SPARK

Already one of indie rock’s tightest live bands, SPARK gives them a dozen more arrows for their quiver and maybe a chance for Ehrlich to get out from behind the drum kit and soothe our souls straight from the footlights.

Whitney have updated their sound, but they do it with such subtlety and finesse that it feels incredibly natural and organic.

‘SPARK’ reinvents Whitney as a contemporary syndicate of classic pop and their third album is an impressive, bold and contagious body of work that is more candid, emotional and contemplative than ever before.

Portions of SPARK may be too slick for its own good, as basic lovelorn lyrics that fill songs like "BACK THEN" ("Blue skies don't feel so wrong / Those times have come and gone") and the back end's more drippy melodies ("HEART WILL BEAT") go down a bit too easily. But on SPARK, Whitney prove themselves to be in the indie rock game for the long run, even if they've outgrown the type of indie rock that birthed them.

‘Spark’ presents a jarring change: not one from that familiar warmth to icy cold, but only halfway, a sort of uncomfortable mild chill.

Whitney’s music is starting to sound better than it is. A little more songwriting, and a bit more leeway for that old, bracing strangeness, would go a long way.