Fangclub: Vulture Culture review – A change in tone for Rush rockers

Two years ago, north Dublin's Fangclub released their self-titled debut, the contents of which blew away the world's supply of cobwebs every time you listened to it.

That album was completed in a swirl of obsessive attention to detail, and was duly presented to a major label as a done deal. The music? A blissful battering ram of riffs and melody, in thrall as much to grunge as to punk.

Little of the album, however, prepares you for Vulture Culture, which begins (via a clever, delicate segue from the first album’s final track, Animal Skin) with Last Time, the longest and perhaps most atypical track here, but also one that presents the band’s current mindset in the clearest light. Mellow in tone yet serious in content, it’s a fragile opener to a record that presents frailties and flaws under a cloak of riffs that will have you seeking out things to kick to pieces.

The clincher with Vulture Culture, however, is the alignment of its virtually impregnable structural force with melodic hooks and lyrical depth that hit targets song after song.

Difficult second album syndrome? What’s that when it’s at home alone?