Four years since their debut, Temples are back with their lysergic sophomore album Volcano, and it sounds like something The Beatles would produce if they were fed more psychedelics and handed a synth machine.

Album opener ‘Certainty’ stomps in with heavy bass and gutsy drums, introducing Temples’ new, revolutionised sound. The dirty buzz of the bass is juxtaposed with psychedelic synth-hooks, yet they merge seamlessly as the track develops into a cosmic masterpiece, propelling you into some kaleidoscopic dimension. Suddenly, the layers dissolve, leaving waves of hypnotic 80s synth oscillating between your ears, until the tingling static and triumphant drum pulses of ‘All Join In’ take over.

From start to finish, Volcano transcends style and genre as each track morphs into the next with hallucinogenic creativity. From the soothing cosmic synth of ‘How Would You Like To Go’ to clappy anthem ‘The Mystery of Pop’, Temples’ fuse 70s psychedelia with 80s synthwave and a futuristic obscurity that is now quintessential Temples. Meanwhile, ‘Oh The Saviour’ and ‘In My Pocket’ sound like a lost Beatles tracks, with their ambiguous lyrics and dreamy escapism.

It’s this escapism that infuses the lyrics, which seem painfully 2017 with their underlying paranoia towards the unknown and expressions of concern on environmental issues. ‘Certainty’ escapes to a tangible utopia (“We mend the scenes of ever everland / On the sand of another land), while the rest of the album provides soothing soundscapes that transport the listener to another dimension, far far away from Trump and May.

With its galactic sounds and mind-blowing variety, Volcano feels like a revolutionary album, perhaps already earning its place as one of the best albums of 2017.

Meg Firth