Wolf People toughen up on Ruins

This is a band who do not easily rally under commonly defined banners; instead their work often sits awkwardly alongside them, and when it doesn't, it's instead constantly crisscrossing boundaries. Though Wolf People's third album continues to show their natural instincts of blending psych and pastoral folk with shifting time signatures contained within the heartbeats of progressive rock, this time this time they add a stronger, metallic backbone.

They cite the discovery of proto Black Sabbath Scottish band Iron Claw as a key influence on Ruins, and it at least partly explains why it's a step away from the folky touches on their previous two albums. Ruins shows an added steel and stronger resolve, the sound of a band toughening up, but still retaining that initial spirit that made them so distinctive.

Much like British Sea Power, they're also influenced by both the environment and history so much that it feeds into their general being (the lyrics to the occasionally noisy, psych-embracing "Ninth Night" consist solely of an incantation that was once whispered by 18th century burglars and vagabonds). But it can also be a groove-ridden affair, and on such songs as the rhythmically funky “Thistles” and “Not Me Sir” a funk becomes the solid foundations their squall is constructed upon.

In Ruins, Wolf People have created an album unlike any other that will be released this year.