Anyone looking for thoughtful, intelligently arranged, progressively tinged alt-rock stop looking now. I suggest you get a copy of this album, and do it now, as it's unlikely there will be anything else, released by anyone else this year, that will match this band's debut for dynamic scope and almost faultless execution. 

That this album comes as a debut from a relatively young and inexperienced bunch of guys is nothing short of astounding. Quite simply, there are too many bands with twice the collective age that don't have the ability to write and arrange a song that twists and turns, yet maintains interest with such suppleness over the course of twelve plus minutes as album closer “Prisoner”. Occasionally vocalist Banjamin Hiorns comes over like a cross between Lloyd Cole, of Commotions fame, and Grandaddy's Jason Lytle with his vocal delivery but, in the main, Dead Letter Office have a sound that is all their own. 

The bands' lack of experience does, at times, lead to instances where the transitions within the songs are a little forced  or misplaced  but these are few and far between and this is an album that's simply filled with multifaceted tracks that evoke at times the eclecticism of Led Zeppelin combined with the ambient soundscapes of Tool married to the epic dynamics of Muse. If this all seems a little gushing and difficult to believe then I defy anyone whose interest has been piqued by the references I've made to pick up this record and tell me I'm wrong. There won't be many of you. 

I'm not saying that Dead Letter Office have an everyman appeal however, if you like your HardRockHouse fare to be just that, traditional Hard Rock, then there's not much here for you. On the other hand anyone looking for music in the vein of the opening sentence of this review will find this an album that's the equal of recent offerings from Arcade Fire or Interpol.

Let us know your views on Complications

Track Listing

Follow Me Down
Pulling Teeth
Smokescreen
The Autumn Years
Lust
Bedsores
Poles Apart
Paper Aeroplane Pilots
Sunshine Gasoline
Scarlett
Prisoner

Line Up

Benjamin Hiorns – Vocals/Guitar
Harry Bourne – Drums/Vocals
Ben Allen – Keyboards
Ben Foxall – Guitar
Jevon Davies – Bass/Vocals