The Ride

The Ride

No difficult second album here. Just blistering, swashbuckling tunes. Fittingly for a band that earned notoriety playing parking lots outside other bands’ gigs, there’s a fearlessness to the British four-piece’s follow-up to 2014’s rollicking The Balcony. Its first half is a masterclass in exuberant, let-tonight-last-forever indie—“Twice” and “Soudcheck,” in particular, were built for raucous festival crowds—before two gems glisten on the home straight. “Glasgow” and “Heathrow” are both gorgeous and reveal a softer, melodically piercing side to a band breaking confidently into its stride.