7/10

Following on from their much-admired 2014 debut album 'The Balcony' and their surprise win as the "Best British Breakthrough Act" at this year's Brit Awards, Catfish & The Bottlemen return to deliver their second studio album 'The Ride'. And while 'The Balcony' was filled with its fair set of singles, this new full-length has less of any deliberate stand-out tracks, making this a far more succinct listen.

With the rise of downloading, artists are thinking less about selling an album off a few hit singles and more about pushing it as a whole, and it is this ethos that best describes the difference between this record and their former. Each track is built to compliment the ones before and after it, giving a more developed sound and harder to tune out of. Tracks like 'Soundcheck' and the leads single '7' show that they have managed to move on from their initial direction and create something more engaging this time around.

In all, this is the band's first real attempt in creating a solid body of work without the distraction of what will get played on the radio. 'The Ride' gives an evolved principle from their debut and certainly shows promise for the band's career moving forward.