Beautiful music, for anyone with a broken heart.

It is very rare that I find myself presented with a truly breath-taking piece of music; an audio experience so good that, after listening, both world views and underwear need to be changed. Music so perfectly choreographed, to the finest detail, that you lose interest in the opposite sex, you stop leaving the house and you break into a cold sweat if you haven't listened to the album in the last 24 hours. The First Days Of Spring is almost that album. While I have yet to conduct a candlelit shrine in its honour, I have certainly begun devising plans as to how I can begin fostering children with the 4 men involved its blissful conception.

It is what could be described as a break-up album, but it is not so much a musical journey of a man struggling with a broken heart, but rather a man struggling to find a heart left at all. Conceptually brilliant and equally brilliant in its execution, the first days of spring provides a narrative of one man's emotional journey from denial to acceptance of lost love.

The musicianship, as well, is a demonstration in the sublime. From the neatly arranged instrumental tracks to the sound of church bells, heavy rain and lapping waves bleeding from track to track, it is moody, atmospheric and articulate, a combination scarcely found executed with such gracefulness.

This is not a bleak album, however, there is always the sense of hope, as evidenced in the first single Blue skies, with a refrain of "I'll do anything to be happy, oh cause blue skies are calling but I know that it's hard". It is the journey of a man with hope of the horizon, but also of the realisation that he is yet to reach it.

So why hasn't this album made me need to change my underwear at least twice every day since its release? In truth, it's difficult to articulate why my far and away favourite record of 2009, thus far, doesn't score a perfect 10 from me. It is, perhaps, because the album is too good; the areas I love are also the areas driving me into despair. Listening to the album is an emotional commitment, a commitment to set aside a painful, yet beautifully uplifting, 45 minutes of my day. I cannot dip into tracks, there is no catchy filler, I must listen to the entire album from beginning to end - if I do not have 45 minutes, I cannot listen to Noah and the whale.

Therefore, It must be said, this album is not fun. While most albums pickup, switch, or change dynamic at some points, The First Days OF Spring gives the impression of a constant prolonged sigh. It is immersive throughout but one is almost left with the impression that there could have been something more. But at the same time, it is hard to envision how the somewhat jovial nature of the first album could have been added to the mix without detracting from the melancholy feel of the album in some way.

This is not an album for listeners who heard five years time on the radio and were taken by the funky beat. It is a majestically downbeat album, worthy of a serious listen by anyone who has the slightest inclination that they may, in fact, hate life. The soul-crushing honesty on display will surely move even the sturdiest of hearts and the sheer lyrical and musical talent secures this as one of my favourite records to date. I just hope, one day, I'll be able to sleep easy again.