The Kissaway Trail. Roll the name about on your tongue and it tastes wistful. Since their 2007 self-titled debut full-length (a year after their self-released Into the Ocean and Rise Again EP) the Danish compatriots of Mew and Carpark North (to name but a few) have built their name on epic, sing-a-long choruses and musical themes of mountainous escape, childhood and similar notions. 2010’s Sleep Mountain was a more straightforward affair, even formulaic in parts, but still retained their signature dream-pop, and so it falls to Breach to chart new territory without retracing too many old steps.

The album gets off to a pleasant enough start, but ‘Telly The Truth’ and ‘Nørrebro’ (a more awkwardly named opening brace you couldn’t ask for) are really only incidental aperitifs. ‘Cuts of Youth (Eternal Summer)’ starts to show characteristic promise, a care-free, soaring chorus of “nothing else matters…to me” evoking their debut’s ‘La La Song’ and their more optimistic side. The tantalizingly named ‘The Springsteen Implosion’ continues roughly in this vein but starts to re-introduce the more complexly emotive sound of past highlights ‘Pharaohs And Kings’ and ‘Eloquence and Elixir’. From there, the record just takes flight.

What makes this album so scintillating, whether you’re a long time fan or a newcomer, is its relative simplicity. The Kissaway Trail share the same spark that makes Arcade Fire (‘Neighbourhood’ especially) and Pomegranates great, the ability to put a layered twist on a simple riff that spirals off into brilliance, the slightly yelping vocals that effortlessly convey a harking back to innocence and some absolutely brutal hooks. Breach exemplifies this better than eve,r and bar the slightly slow start represents a perfect amalgamation of their off-kilter self-titled record and its more groove-based follow up.

From the reverb-drenched ‘So Sorry’ to the infuriatingly catchy ‘Shaking The Mote’, The Kissaway Trail have finally achieved real consistency, and in so doing easily created their best work yet. It’s richness of tone, driving rhythms and sensitive use of synths to shore up the texture makes for plenty of replay value, each song varied enough within its own context and that of the album to avoid feeling predictable for a long time. And you’ll want to get to know it, to indulge, such is their infectious new sense of confidence.

All told, Breach is a sustainable thrill that despite the ambulatory nature of their name is more of a monument, or a line in the sand, especially in light of purported inter-band friction during the recording process. It delivers on the Canadian/Scandi (Scandinadian?) tropes you might expect, but puts enough personality and drive into the mix to make it a relevant and worthwhile record. This particular trail leads to new heights.