Pram, Dark Island (side A)

I've been a Pram fan for years, still very much love Sargasso Sea especially, and feel lucky that I got to see them in 1996 or so. I lost track of later albums and am catching up in a somewhat arbitrary order. Dark Island, from 2002, has a surprisingly austere black and white cover after years of bright colors. Otherwise, it's not a very radical departure. The more typical songs sound a lot like older Pram. The atypical songs aren't wildly divergent, they just stretch the bounds a bit further. The most driving moments sound more like their live sets, the abstract parts are a bit odder, and the lounge parts are even loungier. Dark Island comes on impressive, super-thick vinyl too.