Austra: Olympia – review

Sad dance music is an art, and few do it well, but Austra's debut album, Feel It Break, with its operatic flair for doomy synths and high drama, suggested they knew their way around a minor chord. The Toronto band take a step forward with Olympia, sweeping up that debut's more introspective, bedroomy inclinations and dumping them in the middle of the dancefloor. Opener What We Done sets the tone, tentatively creeping into life before emerging wide-eyed into strident four-to-the-floor territory, while Annie (Oh Muse You) is smooth, ambitious and house-heavy, right down to the handclaps. What's most striking is how great this sounds – clean, considered, with every detail in its place and a clear sense of its own identity. It's tailor-made for tears at 4am.