Album Review: 'Cocoa Sugar' from Young Fathers

Young Fathers’ third album has been billed as their most “commercial” yet. It isn’t anything of the sort of course – if anything its fever-dream denseness represents a step up from the combative idiosyncrasies of its predecessors.

But weirdness is a good fit for the Edinburgh three-piece and they embrace it with aplomb. The lurching ‘Border Girl’ breaks into an acapella mid-section, while ‘Toy’ incorporates late-’70s electronica and Krautrock.

They can do understatement too, with ‘Fee Fi’ stitching together fluttering piano and muddied vocals. The result is an eccentric masterpiece – a hip-hop record that embraces the avant-garde without exuding even a whiff of pretension.

Rating: 9/10