With their fourth and final album, Glaswegian rock band Aereogramme have reached the high watermark production they’ve been aiming for. Previous albums Sleep and Release and Seclusion demonstrated maybe their songwriting ambitions were exceeding the given recording budget. My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go now accurately captures those excesses with an elegant production that sees the band (creatively) going out on top.

On each successive release Aereogramme has been shedding influences from their youth and they moved into more mature territory. The band’s early days of raw screamed vocals and crowded fuzz guitar feedback have been replaced by carefully mixed tracking containing tasteful complimentary synthesizers, piano, and strings. It’s that old cliché of aural heaviness being swapped for emotional weight.

Craig B’s soft lead vocals and lyrics are still eyebrow-raising earnest as ever – existential explorations of love and belief. With the overpowering instrumental melodies, it forms a sugary dark melancholy similar to Denmark’s Mew that hits you with a paradoxical dense clarity.

“Exits” and “The Running Map” have downright pretty twinkling notes. And album single “Barriers” has a violin solo. So there’s that.