Fourth Floor Collapse’s third album Books With Broken Spines is chock-full of melody and emotion, but there is definitely enough bombast on here to shake things up and keep the listener captivated. Atmospheric, textured and beguiling, this album intrigues as much as it satisfies, through lyrical content as much as gentle-one-minute, raucous-the-next musical aptitude.

Michael Miller’s vocals have the ability to suck you right in. Earnest and emotive, yet never sounding vulnerable or trite, he belies an urgency even during mellower tracks such as Drink ‘Til You Drown. This track, the first single to be released off the album, serves as a stirring call card for the album, what with its layered choruses and impacting lyrics.

There’s definitely a capacity to heartbreak on this album, best illustrated with closing track Winter’s End, a slow song backed by simple guitar that contains melancholy lyrics such as, “The sun on her face lets her forget the rain on her back”.

Well Lit’s acoustic introduction and stark vocals also make for a stirring song and this is perpetuated by the occasional backing vocals. A whole other dimension to the track is realised when an electric strain comes through in the background towards the end of the song, seeing it through to its fade-out conclusion.  

While Fourth Floor Collapse can play the slow, quiet(ish) tune well, it is precisely this element which makes the often-frenetic choruses so effective. Second track Ashes commences with a ballad-like quality, but the sporadic and almost forceful drumming (courtesy of Mick Parker) and subsequent guitar cacophony (made possible by Dan Forrestal and Rhys Kealley) make for an attention-grabbing tune.

Likewise, This Feels Like… features the soft vocals of Jasmine Yee during the verses – a stark and effective contrast to the hard-hitting choruses. Scaling Walls is a faster song altogether from the onset, with a speedy intro and musical intensity that makes it one of the best songs on the album. 

The Melbourne-based quintet have certainly made good with this release. Addictive is an apt word to describe Books With Broken Spines. You’d think that with repeated listens the ears could be satiated, but it seems to be that the more you listen to this album, the more you want to listen to it again as soon as the record has stopped. This quality alone should be indication enough that Fourth Floor Collapse has created something beyond the realms of just plain ‘good’. They’ve created something fantastic.