Birds of Tokyo
March Fires
EMI
REVIEW SIMON COLLINS

3 Stars

"We're all in this riot/We riot as one," Ian Kenny sings in falsetto on When the Night Falls Quiet, the most pop song Perth's Birds of Tokyo have penned on a fourth album which has gone one better than their platinum-selling self-titled predecessor, which stalled at No.2.

As with 2010 hit Plans, Kenny sings of a united "we" on singles This Fire and Lanterns: "We are ready, we are young, we have nothing to fear."

Both songs function as a call to arms for their burgeoning fan base as well as totems for the band, which shed a member and reconfigured itself a quintet: fire, renewal, forging ahead.

It's a pity, then, that the production from LA's Dave Cooley has muted these clarion calls, leaving mostly asinine commercial rock.

Synth-laden mid-album tracks The Others and White Leaves briefly revive listeners, before they are plunged into a downbeat run home to Hounds.