By Norman Miller
Four years after their well-received full-length debut (which followed the 2004 mini album Folly) Engineers have finally built another hazy wall of sound for our delectation. Producer Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros, Maps) gives this the quality of 21st century Phil Spector, an approach that allies itself well with the band’s shoegaze tendencies. It’s good summer music as Simon Phipps dream-pop vocals drift beautifully over the firmer musical ground provided by guitarist Dan Macbean, bassist Mark Peters and drummer Sweeney, and there‘s a sweetness about it that makes this shoegaze without the angst. The best tracks see the blissed-out haziness of Phipps’ vocals balanced with musical grit, such as the Krautrock hooks on ‘Clean Coloured Wire’ (the album’s first single) and the closing ‘What Pushed Us Together’. A piano line adds similar interest bubbling through the mix on ‘Crawl From The Wreckage’. Slow-churning guitar on ‘Sometimes I Realise’ and sharper licks on ‘Hang Your Head’ serve a similar purpose, and there’s a welcome brightness to the latter which it shares with ‘Emergency Room’. The lilting surge of ‘Helped By Science?’ scores for epic quality. Dirge-ness, though, is always a hazard of shoegaze, and some tracks here succumb - the well-named ‘International Dirge’ and ‘Song For Andy’ being the main culprits. The title track, meanwhile, is pretty but lightweight. The album’s closing stages puts things right, though. ‘The Fear Has Gone’ is the album’s joint standout (along with ‘Clean Coloured Wire’) from its gorgeous opening cello drone to the chunky guitar finale that sees Phipps’ voice take on the quality of Barrett-era Floyd. There’s a hint of early Floyd too on ‘Be What You Are’ which, after worrying you with its acoustic guitar intro, turns into a nod towards the charming folky forays of Meddle.
Source : http://beardedmagazine.co.uk/wp/?p=985
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