A 50-minute somambulant trip through themes of happiness and loneliness, illustrated by instrumental soundscapes and compassionate, shy-of-the-spotlight lyrics. A collection of songs shaped as a easy-to-swallow tablet scientifically desgined to steer brai

A first, casual listen will inspire you to dig for that chucked receipt, and a way to somehow re-wrap the album so as not to get head-shakes from the recipient sales associates. However, I proudly argue that Into the Blue Again isn't an album designed to reveal its quality by how many times a listen is given, but at what point of your life, and most importantly within which scenario of said life, one of these songs makes its appearance. A song like Always For You is cathartic in its immediacy, aided by bold rythms, a snaking synthesizer, and lyrics that may humble one for awhile post a relationship related let down. On the other hand, a song like Red-Eye may just one day find itself in a playlist designed for introspection, inspired by and perfect for late-night high-way driving. If the album sounds wonderful so far, it's because it definitely is, but there are short-comings (as with everything in life). It isn't a grand concept album made up of varied tracks filling a wonderful organic whole, and one can't help but feel like it should have been, given a title like Into the Blue Again. Instead, it is a simple album composed of looping sounds, bright, epic pick-ups and genuinely human lyrics. Though it may not be a concept album in tradition, exploring varied influences whilst keeping true to the overal fundamental themes of the record, it almost feels like a concept album when considering its track-list. The familiarity between songs may make some people scoff, as may be the case when comparing Wherever I Go to Writings on the Wall. When exploring the latter two tracks, one may notice a compositional similarity between the two, save for the fact that Wherever I Go is a little "brighter", but I believe it goes deeper than that. A close listen to Wherever I Go reveals that though it took something from Writings on the Wall, it also took something from Shine and Always For You, used each part as craft bits and created a song that paves over the brooding sounds within Writings, then uses Shine's soundscapes to deliver the same genuine lyrics found in Always For You, creating a song easily about forgiveness; A love-letter that says both "goodbye" and "I love you". This blend between songs can also be found within Broken Arrow which takes Red-Eye's fundamentals, mixes them with See In You's length and feel, then delivers itself in a way that assures the listener that no other song could have closed the album better. The only stray dog seems to be Wishful Thinking, which would have made more sense if it had been shorter, the album had been re-arranged to satisfy a "brighter" side (The Light, Always for You, Shine, See in You, Into the Sea) and a "darker" side (Red-Eye, Writings on the Wall, Wherever I Go, Broken Arrow) and it had found itself in-between the two sides. Short-comings aside, Into the Blue Again is, again, more about what point in your life you listen to it as opposed to trying to be grander than it does not need to be. It is a concept album in that it wants you to, figuratively, walk "Into the Blue" everytime you need to face yourself. If mistaken as anything more than it is, it will collect dust on the album-rack and be forever defined as the simpleton roommate to an album that takes the conversion from sadness to happiness and almost makes it a religion - Sigur Ros' Takk...