Joyland

Unfurling in a miasmic fog of smoke and synths, 'Trst', the 2012 debut LP from Toronto-based Trust was a darkly glittering electro goth opus, an obsidian black gem of brittle longing and sexual melodrama which captivated listeners and critics alike. Now comes the second LP, 'Joyland'. And where 'Trst' effectively mapped out the groundwork for Alfons' vein of dark psychodrama, 'Joyland' pushes the boundaries outwards and upwards. The blood red dance anthems are present and correct ('Geryon', urgent teaser track 'Rescue, Mister', 'Four Gut') but this album is also much more shaded emotively. The likes of 'Are We Arc?' and 'Capitol' reveal a beating heart pulsing beneath the beats, and elsewhere the album reveals some truly audacious pop excursions, as with Alfons' childlike vocals on the title track, the soaring choruses of 'Peer Pressure', and on the uplifting call and response of 'Lost Souls / Eelings'. This is electro pop alright, but not as we know it - it's something much more elusive, seductive and unknowable than that. Not for nothing does Alfons himself describe it as 'an eruption of guts, eels and joy'.