The fourth full-length release on the How Does It Feel To Be Loved? label may have arrived without any great fanfare, but it has been a long time in the making. The Penguin League was self-released on CD-R by the band back in 2006, but remained relatively unknown until HDIF stepped in to offer it a wider audience.

The album was recorded by 22-year-old Dylan McKeever and his band onto a friend's laptop, relying solely on the computer's built-in microphone. The lo-fi approach seems to have been borne out of necessity, but the results are pleasing. The Penguin League sounds both rich and slightly ramshackle, a difficult combination to pull off. The production never detracts from the quality of the songs, and there's no shortage of songwriting talent on display.

The ten tracks contained here are apparently the first McKeever has ever written, but they sound anything but amateurish. He cites early Belle and Sebastian as an influence, and while the similarity is there, the band has managed to create its own distinct sound with its first release in much the same way as B&S did with Tigermilk.

The album opens with 'I'm No Lover', a 90-second burst of trumpets and galloping drums that starts with the lines, "I'm not a lover, I'm a fighter/And I will eat your children alive". Never has a song about violent retribution sounded so sweet. The second song, 'Circuits', is a slightly nerdy but beautifully-executed love song. The instrumentation takes more of a back seat and McKeever's voice comes to the fore, sounding not unlike Fred Thomas of Saturday Looks Good To Me.

From there on, the album continues to fluctuate between Decemberists-style tales of death and mortality, and plaintive songs about heartbreak and longing from afar. 'Davenport Coast' is probably the best example of the latter, all bittersweet lyrics and vocal harmonies undercut with a desperately sad cello part. There is one instrumental on the album, 'Flightless Birds', which rattles along at a great pace, sounding like a Californian indie kid's take on The Life Aquatic soundtrack.

The standout track, however, is left until second-last. 'Antarctica' is a paean to a continent that clearly fascinates the singer and is probably the most uplifting song here, the handclaps and harmonies never more prominent.

Not a long album by any standard, The Penguin League's ten songs are over in less than half an hour. In that time, however, the listener is taken on a journey across frozen tundra, through distant forests and over harbours shrouded in fog. McKeever has created his own slightly incongruous universe in much the same way as Zach Condon did with Beirut, and the album hangs together as a whole that should be listened to from start to finish.

In summary, I'm hard-pressed to say anything bad about this album. Fans of any of the bands I've mentioned should love it as much as I do.

The Penguin League will be in shops from 11th February, but you can order it direct from How Does It Feel To Be Loved? now. You can read more about the band here.

Antarctica Takes It - Circuits

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