7/10

Santa Claws' second album 'Sands of Time' arrives after years of line-up changes, interrupted plans, remote writing, live experimentation and patient rebuilding, and that history seems to have given the Brittany five-piece a clearer sense of what they want to sound like.

Self-produced at the band's own studio in La Chapelle-Neuve, mixed in-house and mastered to analogue tape by Christophe Chavanon at Studio Kerwax, 'Sands of Time' leans into the warmth and physicality of classic guitar records without sounding like an exercise in nostalgia.

The melodic instinct is strong throughout, but the record also carries the rougher edge of a band shaped by live performance. There's polish here, certainly, but not sterility, as the analogue mastering reinforces that balance, giving the album warmth without sanding away the grit.

Songs such as 'Grain of sand', 'Gimme a minute’ and ‘Rainy day’ already hinted at the direction Santa Claws were moving towards, but collected within a full album they finally feel like pieces of a larger identity locking into place.

Their debut LP 'Life is a Lie' established an organic, live-driven foundation, but this record sounds more settled in its ambitions. The arrangements are broader, the melodic writing feels more assured, and the overall sound suggests a band no longer trying to prove what it could become.

And after a decade of persistence, 'Sands of Time' feels like the moment everything finally catches up with the vision Santa Claws have always pursued.