The Wombats

The album that follows – Oh! The Ocean, The Wombats’ sixth, and their most sonically adventurous and superbly melodic yet – sets about trying to answer them. Its sophisticated, ahead-of-the-curve grooves (the richness of Death Cab for Cutie combined with the adventuring mindset of St Vincent and Tame Impala) still tremble with the sort of confessional emotional honesty that has made the Liverpool band’s music as cathartic and relatable to their growing young fanbase as it is catchy and playful.

From behind the band’s deceptively cuddly façade, Murph has sung openly about his anxiety, depression, marital issues and addictions (he’s now “sober as hell”); here, he lays bare his social discomfort, internal strife, compulsive behaviours and the dilemmas and tribulations of life in his adopted Los Angeles.