Toy: Toy – review

The stars weren't aligned for Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong. A "next big thing" in 2008, their debut album never even got released. However, three members of the band – singer Tom Dougall, guitarist Dominic O'Dair and bassist Maxim Barron – have regrouped as Toy and upped the game entirely. Friends of the Horrors, they have a similar style to that band's second album, Primary Colours: motorik krautrock and psychedelia. Equally similarly, their tunes come shrouded in an effects-laden production that makes listening to them like standing in an aural wind tunnel. But when they emerge, what tunes they are. Dead & Gone is a colourwheel of a song, melodies flying out at all angles over an epically chugging Neu! chassis. If the dips into shoegaze and 1980s "sound and fury" rock sound familiar, pop hooks placed at surprising moments means they sound refreshing more than reheated. The biggest surprising, My Heart Skips a Beat, is almost a psychedelic ballad. A band with every chance.