7/10

There's something appealingly contradictory about 'Somethingism'. Charlie’s Hand Movements describe their fifth album as leaner and more essential than what came before, yet the record’s identity is still built around tension: intimacy against noise, melody against abstraction, and control against the temptation to let everything spill over. But it's that intriguing balance that gives the album its distinctive character.

The Essex duo have been working together since meeting at art school in 2005, and that long history shows in the confidence with which they move between ideas. 'Somethingism' feels less interested in proving how many directions they can take and more concerned with choosing the right ones. After the maximalist sprawl of 'Nuclear Tapes' and the more contained approach of 'Heavy Days', this new record feels like a further refinement of the band’s instincts.

Across eleven tracks, Charlie’s Hand Movements settle into a version of psych-pop that feels distinctly their own. There are obvious points of reference in the elastic imagination of Super Furry Animals, the layered warmth of Grizzly Bear and the more exploratory edges of Talk Talk, but 'Somethingism' never sounds overly indebted to any one influence. Its greatest strength is the way those textures are filtered through a DIY sensibility that keeps everything close, personal and slightly unpredictable.

But what makes it so convincing is that it doesn't confuse concision with simplicity. The album still feels curious, eccentric and occasionally chaotic, but those qualities are now framed with more precision.

Thoughtful, strange and quietly ambitious, 'Somethingism' sounds like a band learning how to say more by leaving more out. For a project built on years of experimentation, that sense of focus feels like its own kind of breakthrough.