This is a double album. It is split into two parts and they are divided by key. Part One is in D and Part Two is in F. Spread across two discs it can be listened to as two individual tracks or in sixteen movements. Part One is split into eleven separate tracks but collectively known as ‘Tao of the Dead’. Part Two is five tracks long, but they are combined into one singular piece called ‘Strange News From Another Planet’. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the 70s.

In a musical landscape more than ruled by the digital download where you can cherry pick songs here and there, listen to them once, throw them away, eat them and then defecate some kind of ‘song residue’ (or whatever the ‘kids’ are doing now), releasing a sprawling double concept album is brave. Braver in many ways than lion tamers and soldiers.

The album, recorded in ten days and featuring a band stripped back from six people to four, succeeds in almost every place that it should fail. It’s not at all pompous, it manages to be compelling and entertaining at the same time, every twist delivered with conviction and a knowing wink, and for a double album, it’s not all that long. Thirty-five minutes for the first part, make a lovely cup of tea, and then sixteen minutes for the second part. I mean, it’s long, but is infinitely helped by the ability to have an intermission.

In musical terms the record finds the band all at once stripped back and bombastic. The retreat to four members has clearly presented them with the opportunity to fall back on guitars more than they have done in recent times and it’s a welcome return. The first disc is remarkably poppy, in Trail Of Dead’s own, alternative way, and balances melodic hooks with atmosphere in a confident and effective way. Occasionally it can feel a little sporadic and disjointed, but that variety is what keeps you compelled. It closes on a frenetic note, leaving you glad that you have to change discs. Like a luddite.

The second disc is an altogether darker affair, and whilst very good, feels entirely separate to the first part. This leads to a relatively confusing listen, the parts not gelling together all that well, but feeling incomplete on their own. The second part is the more interesting, and infinitely more atmospheric work of the two, but simply doesn’t last long enough to be enjoyed in isolation. An interesting experiment, then, but one that doesn’t quite work.

Conclusion: Great music with an odd choice of presentation.