Back with their fourth studio album The Sticks, Mother Mother has crafted another terrific recording, employing subtle shades and textures in ways we've come to expect and shading them slightly with decidedly noir tones.

And what a tone is set within the first minutes of the album; the opening track “Omen” is foreboding in the most ironic way, a prologue of colour and harmony that re-establishes flavours we've come to know as distinctly Mother Mother before pouring out the dark wine that is “The Sticks.”

Even if only in tone, this new record is noticeably darker than previous efforts by the Vancouver band. Lyrically the band remains true to their witty selves, but compositionally the band has built what is arguably their strongest album to date. When first released as a single, “Let's Fall In Love” left a little to be desired in comparison to the pitch and thrust of singles past, however in the context of the overall album the song finds strength and new meaning.

From a composition standpoint, the album seems to benefit from front-to-back listening, but not because the songs are lackluster individually — here the complete work is as gorgeous or more as sum of its parts — tender moments like the delicate guitar in “Dread In My Heart” and how it marries the vocal harmonies so well that every lyric tumbles playfully out, innocent and unassuming.

From the Weezer-esque grind of “Businessman” to the guilty-pleasure pop feel of “Infinitesimal,” the heart-rending quality of “Happy” and the instrumentation in “Little Pistol,” Mother Mother has crafted an album that accomplishes the near impossible: not only does it faithfully follow up a string of popular and unique albums, The Sticks manages to do so while providing room for the band to grow.