Album Review: Rooftops - A Forest of Polarity

If Sigur Ros were brought up on math rock, they'd sound like Rooftops. The intricate guitars utilised on 'A Forest of Polarity perfectly compliment its majestic strings, an element to their sound which wouldn't sound out of place on a Sigur Ros album. It's this winning formula which makes the opening tracks so compelling; 'I Fast Early' and 'Raft Easily' manage to portray passion, whilst remaining technically outstanding. It sounds fresh and exciting.

As the album progresses, Rooftops prove that they have an abundance of clever ideas. Unfortuntately, more often than not these ideas fail to flourish into actual songs, making the album sound slightly disjointed and under-developed near the end. This is not helped by the choice to use vocals on only two of the ten tracks. This may add a new dimension to the music, but they sound out of place on what is naturally an instrumental album.