Bell X1 - Arms (2016)

ARMS is the 7th Studio album from the Dublin based rock group Bell X1. Their first 6 albums have resulted in 4 Choice Music Prize nominations for Irish Album of the Year and 3 debuts at #1 on the Irish album charts. Recorded in Dublin & Donegal by the group and Tommy McLaughlin (Villagers, Soak) the album was mixed by Peter Katis (The National, Jónsi, Frightened Rabbit) in Bridgeport, CT and it sounds like nothing else in their canon. The depth and width, the colours and shades, are familiar, but there's a new space and sense to the songs which speaks volumes about what the band have achieved. The songs here possess a shabby grace and soft-focus elegance, but there's also a bruised, bittersweet, romantic mood throughout. Melancholic and lovelorn in places for sure, but also spirited, determined, bolshie, and optimistic by turns. It's what a band should be doing at this stage of their career.