Albums of the Year # 90 TRAAMS - personal best

  

Chichester's finest, TRAAMS, return with their third album, Personal Best,  their first for seven years. Hardly new territory, this is music rooted mostly in the misty Post Punk and vaguely Gothy Eighties. I was reminded early of Killing Joke, Sisters of Mercy and Loop.

This is ominous, vaguely industrial music. Not exactly overflowing with humour, more intent on dark atmosphere. This isn't really the kind of sound I'm hunting down in my fifties, but as someone who spent plenty of time listening to Cure, Simple Minds and Joy Division albums in my teens while reading European novels, I was more than happy to spend forty five minutes with it.

Featuring plenty of guest vocal appearances. Joe Casey of Promartyr appears at one point. This is essentially a rather gloomy record. But it's highly accomplished and by the time penultimate track, the magnificent Hallie came into view, I was persuaded that this would be getting further play from me.