The Amazing - Picture You

There are more than subtle hints along the way that some interpersonal trouble lurks behind these deeply melancholy songs (take the slow-burning "To Keep It Going": the mournful mantra appears far too lonesome to venture beyond its relentlessly repeated - and sublimely sad - central appeal for more time or maybe another chance). However, The Amazing's singer, songwriter and one of three guitarists in the newly expanded line-up isn't about to spill the beans. One memorable comment has him stating that Picture You isn't pineapple juice: detailed list of ingredients shouldn't be required, only open ears and minds.

Gunrup has a point, but here's also slightly mistaken. It might not come in liquid form or contain pulp, but The Amazing's fourth album is certainly as sweet and more-ish as a fine fruit juice. It's not always easy to swallow, however.

For vast chunks of Picture You, Gunrup's given up on conventional song structures. Instead of the usual verses and choruses, the likes of the wonderfully loose and unpredictable, three-part "Fryshusfunk" - which instantly atones for many of the crimes committed in the name of combining rock and funk influences - could be best described as suites, with often dramatically differing sections welded together to create unashamedly epic marathons that combine lush, meticulously mapped out arrangements with seemingly spontaneous but melodically rich instrumental freak-outs. The musical templates have also been overhauled. Until now, The Amazing have relied heavily on distinctly Nick Drake-ian folk-rock (represented here by the beautiful "Headless Boy") and hazy jams of a late-60's West Coast variety. These expansive workouts are much, much more difficult to source to some easily identifiable source. Dungen at their most experimental (the two bands share an emphasis on limber grooves, alongside guitarist Reine Fiske, who continues to excel in combining classic guitar heroisms with an unstinting, flash-averse focus on the common good few virtuosos bother with) isn't a million miles off, but Gunrup's interest in classic, perma-drizzly indie rock and smooth mid-70's soft-rock grooves sets Picture You far apart from their fellow Swedes. It's almost as if the uncommonly convincing but undeniably derivate earlier stuff was only messed around with to get The Amazing's chops to a level where Gunrup's entire musical vision could be unleashed.

At first, the effects can be frustrating. During the dreamily jingle-jangling, soft-focus first half - subtle hints of Fleetwood Mac, perhaps - of the nine-minute title track, you may find yourself waiting for a chorus that never lands. It can then be difficult to link the drawn-out space-rock coda that follows to all those melancholy goings-on we've just witnessed. Other tracks appear perversely keen to hide their ample melodic riches under hazily multi-layered arrangements, with vocals frequently stacked dense and thick like layers of clothing in an arctic climate.

Stick with it, though, and Picture You soon starts to make glorious widescreen sense. Initially disparate sections cohere into seamless wholes, melodies that seemed half-awake stir to vivid life, and mammoth tracks of borderline foolhardy duration gain hypnotic momentum where they might have initially bordered on an endurance test. It's not totally faultless, but cuts such as the simply sublime "Broken" - the tear-drenched second half must rank as the year's most heartbreakingly pretty sound so far - showcase a thrillingly audacious reinvention for a band who've toyed with straight-ahead retroisms in the past. If the price for this ambitious overhaul is one or two numbers that outstay their welcome, it's surely been worth. It may sound like faint praise seeing as it's only mid-February, but Picture You is most certainly amongst 2015's most remarkable releases. Drink it in, and be careful not to judge it too soon.