It starts with ‘Twice’, which was also the band’s debut single, and the listener could be forgiven for thinking that the album is likely to be a simple imitation of the Cinematic Orchestra’s last album Ma Fleur; it’s built around a haunting piano and the striking vocals of Yumiki Nagano. But as ‘Twice’ fades out and ‘Turn Left’, all jagged beats and fuzzy synths, kicks in, it soon becomes apparent that Little Dragon definitely have more than one trick up their sleeve.

Little Dragon proceeds in this eclectic manner; ‘No Love’ is a down-tempo slab of soul, with echoes of Rae & Christian; ‘Constant Surprises’ brings to mind everyone from Vikter Duplaix to Bugz In The Attic — blending (well & truly) broken beats with a low level hum of organs in the background. There are many bands and artists who mistake chucking everything but the kitchen sink at a song, in the hope that something will work, with eclecticism but Little Dragon are obviously just too talented, and too in love with music to be limited in their choices.

That’s not to say that Little Dragon is without faults. There are times during the middle stages of the album where it seems like the band have fallen into a bit of a slump; some of the songs seem to hit down-tempo as a default setting, but without the emotional punch needed to keep them from becoming slightly lethargic. But just as I was starting to lose hope, a couple of the last songs turn the album around.

‘Stormy Weather’ is little more than Nagano’s beautiful voice and incredibly sparse synths, but is thrillingly effective while closing track Scribbled Paper is simply beautiful; a long slow intro of strings that breaks down to some positively horizontal jazz drums before Nagano’s vocals appear. The song continues in this vein, but in such a pure and perfect way that it almost brought a tear to my eye when it came on my iPod as I pulled in to Waterloo the other day. It’s a truly epic ending for an album that reaches for the stars, even if it doesn’t always touch those heights.

Link: Little Dragon’s MySpace Profile