Ireland’s The Murder Capital make their return with their first new album since 2019, Gigi’s Recovery. The John Congleton produced LP follows the band’s celebrated 2019 debut, When I Have Fears, which reached a Top 20 chart position in the UK, a No. 2 position in their native Ireland, and featured in many end of year lists internationally with The Guardian calling it “an outstanding debut from a great new band who play it like they mean it.”

While the material on When I Have Fears captured the vital beginnings of the group, the 12 songs of Gigi’s Recovery push the band into ever braver sonic territories, oceans apart from previous peers. Ambition is put right at the front and center, with the inventive, expansive guitar work of Cathal Roper and Damien Tuit paired to a precise and intelligent rhythmic unit in bassist Gabriel Paschal Blake and drummer Diarmuid Brennan.

Electronic elements are noticeably more prominent across the record, with industrial influences explored in greater detail than ever before, frontman James McGovern’s bold melodies acting as a reassuring anchor so we never get totally swept away into the band’s new found soundscape.