Continuing to explore the generally subtler side of their music in a new century, Alison and Jim Shaw extend their increasing interest in electronic music on 2008's self-titled effort, as was readily heard on Particles Waves, into an even more refined approach. Keyboards are ultimately the lead instrument throughout much of the album, which in combination with Jim's drumming still holding a sense of restrained, looming power, and Alison's familiar vocals now sweeter than they have yet been, create something close to a new Cranes sound altogether. It's certainly no radical reinvention -- piano has been a lead instrument for Cranes as far back as Tomorrow's Tears in 1991 -- but as a steady evolution, hearing the near-Beach Boys haze and swirl of the arrangement on Worlds and the sense of hidden depths on Collecting Stones, it's a quite striking blend of past and present. It's not that guitars have completely disappeared, certainly, but often they are presented as extra shading or a sudden alteration of a performance. Wonderful Things is perhaps the most classically Cranes song in the older vein, but in a calmer mode, the guitars providing rhythm more than anything else. Elsewhere, Feathers is almost a post-punk tribute of sorts, thanks not only to the guitar but the very New Order-like bass, while Move Along is another standout on a fine album. ~ Ned Raggett, Rovi

1		Diorama
2		Worlds
3		Feathers
4		Wires
5		Panorama
6		Wonderful Things
7		Collecting Stones
8		Invisible
9		Move Along
10		Sleepwalking
11		High and Low

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