The Neighbourhood

The Neighbourhood make moody, monochrome alt-pop: clean, reverbed guitar figures laid over slow, hip-hop-leaning drums, with a voice that stays low and close to the microphone. The songs are about wanting, doubt and self-image, and they almost never raise their voice to make the point.

The sound sits somewhere between a rock band and a production project. Guitars are used for texture as much as for riffs, the low end is programmed about as often as it is played, and R&B phrasing runs through the vocal lines. The band formed in 2011 and broke through with a single that has outlived most of its era. The albums since, among them I Love You., Wiped Out! and Chip Chrome & The Mono-Tones, hold the same atmosphere while pulling the arrangements steadily further apart.

Live, the material translates by getting heavier. The drums hit harder than they do on record, the guitars fill the space the production usually occupies, and the quietest songs turn into the loudest singalongs. It suits anyone who likes rock that keeps its cool: dark, unhurried, and built around a voice that never has to shout.