I Break Horses - Warnings

The Guardian 60

(Bella Union)

Having started out as a My Bloody Valentine-indebted shoegaze duo, I Break Horses had become a solo vehicle for Swedish singer-songwriter Maria Lindén by the time of 2014’s rather more electronica-influenced second album, Chiaroscuro. The six years since have been notable chiefly for a series of false starts: collaborations that didn’t come off, two years’ work lost on a crashed hard drive. But despite a new creative foil in producer Chris Coady (Beach House, TV on the Radio), the long gestation period of this third album hasn’t brought about any quantum leaps in style: Warnings majors in the sort of gently woozy homemade synthscapes that defined its predecessor.

The record is most effective when Lindén sounds more animated, as on I’ll Be the Death of You and the nimble, propulsive, Kraftwerk-influenced Neon Lights. Unfortunately these moments are overshadowed by lengthier excursions that give longueurs a bad name. The opener, Turn, details the aftermath of a relationship gone sour, but the cloyingly tinkling synths and funereal pace make its nine ponderous minutes feel like an endurance test. Lead single Death Engine is similarly overegged, and the three instrumental interstices anaesthetise the palate rather than cleanse it. There’s the kernel of a good album here – but it’s no more than that.