It’s an oft-repeated cliché that Eskimos have fifty-plus words in their lexicon to refer to snow. The title of this album then would seem somewhat appropriate, given that Why? are a band prone to making music that it would seem impossible to categorise using any single musical term or classification.

Since Jonathon “Yoni” Wolf (below) recruited a full band, Why?’s musical output has consisted of a nuanced mixture of the front man’s avant-garde hip-hop background with Anticon stalwarts cLOUDDEAD and a more quaint indie-rock.

It’s an interesting and rewarding mixture, one that was developed on Elephant Eyelash in 2005 and perfected on 2008’s Alopecia, an album that mixed deeply textured alternative stylings with the free-wheeling and stream-of-consciousness verses of underground hip-hop.

Despite arising from the same recording sessions as last year's celebrated long-player this is, in Wolf’s own words, “the least hip-hop thing” the band have ever recorded. The group proves itselves more than adept at penning pianocentric pop-rock, but old fans may feel like this album is missing something.

This is a little hard to deny, the removal of the group’s hip-hop undertones meaning that this album doesn’t possess any genre-straddling high points as glorious as Alopecia’s 'By Torpedo Or Crohns', but the continued input of Wolf means that this band will always have a unique edge. Penning lyrics so packed with neuroses they’d make Woody Allen feel like he’d need to try harder, and with a genuinely unique singing voice, he elevates the songs to a greater plateau; the resigned refrain of “no flash photography” on 'Even The Good Wood Gone' is genuinely heart-rending.

Musically the album has its transcendental moments too, with songs like 'January Twenty Something' pulsing ever forward, and 'Into The Shadows Of My Embrace' has a gentle lilt which makes it a genuinely invigorating listen. It may not be their greatest release, but its lasting impression is certainly one of quality, and it’s a genuinely interesting look at where the band could go from here.               

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