Arnold: Hillside

Hillside is the intriguing full-length debut by Arnold, a new British band that's sure to inspire comparisons to Radiohead. It's fortunate, then, that on Hillside Arnold is both good enough to withstand them and distinctive enough to stand apart. Filled with melancholy, intricately arranged songs, Hillside sounds both mature and incomplete, and both those elements make it exciting to experience. "Fleas Don't Fly," "Goodbye Grey," and the title track, for example, are all built around slow-paced, thickly layered, dreamy pop melodies. But there are other elements, like the strange, spoken-word "Rabbit" and some open-ended tracks on the second half, such as "Rubber Duck (Parts One, Two And Three)", that demonstrate Arnold's willingness to stretch out and make Hillside worth repeat listens. What the album lacks in intensity, it more than makes up for with its lovely, sad tone. Almost nothing Arnold writes jumps out immediately, but it has a way of creeping that makes it exciting in a peculiar, subtle way.