Wild Beasts
Boy King
Domino

While there’s always been a seductive sexiness to the Wild Beasts’ lusci­ous art rock, on their fifth album, Boy King, the strutting boys from north­ern England swap the sultry for the downright filthy. From the throb­bing red-blooded bass line of lead single Get My Bang to the mus­cu­lar Tough Guy, in which synths that used to shimmer now pulsate with carnal desire, the album writhes around the dance floor like a sweaty, humping brute. Their previous album, 2014’s fragile and introspective Present Tense, dialled down the soaring vocal theatrics between co-vocalists Hayden Thorpe and Tom Fleming that made the Mercury-nominated Two Dancers so uniquely innovative and enthralling. And if you thought this was the culmination of the band’s master plan, you were wrong. Produced by John Congleton (St Vincent), Boy King breathes with a newfound impulsive freedom that backs up Fleming’s claims that “this one is all f*** songs”. Consider, too, the heart-pound­ing drums, Thorpe’s “inner Byron” and a little funk borrowed from Prince, and we shouldn’t be surprised if there’s a spike in births in about nine months.