Why Does It Always Rain On Me, Writing To Reach You, Driftwood and Turn were among the most played songs on radio for what seemed an enternity.
How d'you follow success like that? Most often, you don't.
Since then they’ve been lacklustre and after their sixth album five years ago, they shut up shop.
Clearly, the rest has done them good because this is their best outing since their heyday, full of barbed pop hooks and musical ambition.
Best are Moving, despite its similarity to Killers anthem All These Things That I’ve Done, and Mother in which Fran Healy aptly sings: ”Why did we wait so long?"
He reprises time and again the old trick of taking a memorable phrase and repeating it until it's in danger of outlasting its welcome, but always stops shy of being shown the door.
Recorded across London, Norway, New York and Berlin's legendary Hansa Studios, it's at times pleasantly predictable.
But A Different Room adds Bowie-styled synthesisers, New Shoes treads on New Age beats and pop syncopation, and Where You Stand is a Coldplay clone.
No dizzy heights , then, but a high step back on the ladder. Good to have you back, guys.
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