Diagrams is an apt name for an artist who creates such pristine, precise pop music. Sam Genders used to be a member of Tunng, and while some of their psychedelic, bucolic folk sound permeates his second album as Diagrams, it has more in common with Super Furry Animals, whose influence is daubed all over Chromatics.
Genders has a gift for making melodic indie-pop sound fresh and effortless and even the more maudlin material sounds welcoming – Desolation sounds like the sweetest sorrow. Fans of the first album might be surprised to hear a shift away from carefully drawn laptop-pop to a more lush, organic sound, but it's a welcome development, perhaps attributable to the huge confidence of the songwriting.
