I wasn't a great fan of Manchester Orchestra's previous albums, too mottled in sound and simply not interesting enough. So I approached "Simple Math" (officialy released last tuesday) with more than a doubt, just to find out that the Atlanta-based band has really grown.

The concept behind the new release ("It's a story about a 23-year old who questions everything from marriage to love to religion to sex", tells us frontman Andy Hull) has been cleverly developed with intense, more focused songs, so that MO's alternative rock gained an "arena rock with an indie soul" vibe. I mean, they're moving in Blue October's territory with "Simple Math": there's passion, there's anger, there's introspection, there's the fire and there's the lullaby.

Sure there's still a lot of way to go for Manchester Orchestra to reach the same levels of inspiration and artfulness of the texans: some tracks are still pretty annoying or not incisively crafted. But "Simple Math" is a major step in the right direction, and a very good album all told.