Houndmouth ★★★★ Good For You

DUALTONE. CD/DL/LP

Fourth LP’s volte-face prompts tail-wags all round. Four albums in, New Albany, Indiana’s Houndmouth here undergo another radical rebirth. Trading the Daft Punk and Frank Ocean-influenced

strains of 2018’s Golden Age for a mostly mellow rusticity,

Good For You should chime with fans of Tight Knit-era Vetiver or Mac DeMarco at his most reflective. If Ride Or Die’s divine piano and assonant opening couplets – “Passed the mansions/They’re throwing plastic/Wasted hairbands/ Unsnapped elastic” – speak of a trio highly attuned to nuances of mood and scene setting, it’s the single McKenzie, remembering a brief affair with a charismatic waitress, and built on a nagging acoustic guitar hook, which impresses most. Hatched at Houndmouth’s 19th century den The Green House with Brad Cook (Waxahatchee) and Jon Ashley (The War On Drugs) at the controls, Good For You is an escapist tonic.