The Amazing follow up a spellbinding reinvention with more of the same, only slightly less so

Released after a four-year break since the lush yet, as ever, slightly derivative Gentle Stream, last year's Picture You proved a genuinely jaw-dropping reinvention. Imagine a seamless blend of the epic balladry of late-period Led Zeppelin with the ample reserves of Valhalla-courting testosterone drained out, the gut-wrenching heartbreak of Neil Young at his most desolate, a couple of smooth moves from the revived 70's soft-rock cookbook and the most melancholy moments of the contemporary indie/alt-rock oeuvre, all of it painted in different shades of blue on a lavishly sized canvas, and you've a fair inkling of the boundlessly sad yet supremely sparkling contents of one of the most criminally underrated albums of recent years.

Having landed on a genuinely fresh sound, it's unsurprising The Amazing have returned to the same neighbourhood on the follow-up. Although the richly textured, ear-hugging production is similarly widescreen, Ambulance is a more intimate and insular offering, to the point where tracks such as "Divide" threaten to dissolve into the ether before fully engaging with the listener's ears. Songwriter and singer Christoffer Gunrup's plaintitative vocals remain coated in enough reverb to evade easy access to the lyric sheet, but the music's world-weary glide and melodies that seem forever on the brink of tears indicate that, as with Picture You, we must be dealing with themes of solitude, regret and longing.

However, Ambulance struggles to soar with intensity of its predecessor, which managed to couple its air of wounded fatalism with multiple moments of truly majestic beauty. The overriding mood here is that of a lonely drudge through the watery slush on a gloomy, sun-starved Scandinavian Spring day. The band's two superstar instrumentalists - guitarist Reine Fiske (who also shreds with likeminded Swedes Dungen), an unusual guitar hero in the sense that he's first and foremost a team player, and subtly funky drummer Moussa Fadera - occasionally get submerged in the melancholy haze.

That said, Ambulance is only mildly disappointing in comparison to its perfectly put predecessor; had this been the follow-up to Gentle Stream, the highlights - the slow-burning fretboard explosions of "Tracks", the bruised beauty of "Through City Lights" - would no doubt have seemed almost as revelatory.