VNV Nation ‎– Automatic

Wow. I will admit: I was skeptical after the last record (whatever it was called, I can't remember and don't much care, sorry), which may inflate my impression of Automatic. Even so.

This record is easily the equal of Empires or Futureperfect and manages to challenge even the emotional and songwriting highs of PTF. "Space and Time," "Resolution," and "Streamline" are energetic, inventive VNV anthems; "Control" is a powerful banger in the vein of "Voice" and "Entropy"; and "Radio" is one of those great forward-thinking future-pop epics of the style they invented on "Airships," though it's better even than that song.

The indisputable highlight—the hair-raisingly, goose-bumpingly, fist-pumpingly, just-got-somethin'-in-my-eye-man AWESOME centrepiece—is "Gratitude," and it's from another fucking planet, dude. Ronan found this song in the same place he found "Solitary" and "Fearless." In fact, it feels almost like a completion of that journey.

I could go on, but I'll spare you: HEAR THIS RECORD. Given how underwhelming VNV's last couple records were (I liked "Nemesis" a lot, but other than that I couldn't name a single song off either of the last two that I feel compelled to listen to again), you'll be doing yourself a favor in picking up where you left off. I'm gonna say it: this is their masterpiece.