The English Riviera is an album dripping in charm, and a vast improvement‚ albeit with a slightly disconcerting change of sound‚ on their last. Metronomy, to me, used to sound like a band who couldn’t quite decide where they wanted to go with their music. Thankfully, this has changed now.

After the success of Nights Out, they’ve found maturity with a sound that makes for much easier listening, and the trio sound much more assured here than they have before. However, this isn’t to say that they can be pigeonholed into one particular style. The key strength of this album is its variety.

There are echoes of their past in the tracks 'Loving Arm' and 'Love Underlined', but these only work when surrounded by the sweeter, more melodic 'Corinne' and 'Some Written'; and it’s difficult to listen to them without a slight feeling that Metronomy may be parodying themselves.

The first half of the album grabs the attention. Starting with the call of seagulls to set the scene, Joe Mount and his band move briskly through a reimagined South coast town. 'She Wants' is a rare glimpse of sentimentality, and Trouble - my personal highlight of the album - is half gorgeous soft rock and half dark, dry humour that somehow seems to work. The album doesn’t let up pace; with an episodic regularity the listener is bombarded with catchy hooks, tight beats and a set of beautiful basslines that make it difficult not to emerge with a smile. You can almost smell the summer in the air.

The one problem with The English Riviera is that the second half could never quite match the first. Although it still contains some great songs, I always find myself skipping back until I find the particular chorus I can’t get out of my head.

Having said that, the variety on this album doesn’t necessarily make for a record that can be listened to all the way through. Like any great summer album it can be enjoyed in parts or as a whole; its constituent parts keep the excitement and originality that make The English Riviera one of the best new releases in recent months.