Although the Juno award-winning Wintersleep has been lauded as having released ‘the album of their career’ with Hello Hum, not much has changed from their previous work. The band brought producer Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips; MGMT) aboard for their fifth full-length album, although his presence is not especially noticeable.

With melodies beautifully backed up by intricate guitar picking, the album’s instrumentals remain on par with Wintersleep’s sound in past albums. Lead singer Paul Murphy’s nasally vocal tone, highly reminiscent of Interpol’s Paul Banks and We Are Scientists’ Keith Murray, acts as a distinct instrument woven through each song. Matching perfectly with the tones of the rest of the band, Murphy’s vocals are essential to the creation of their seemingly effortless sound.

Most peculiar is that Wintersleep were able to stay true to their old-school rock sound while adding hints of synths to their music. With soft, elaborate instrumentals and full choruses, it’s hard to tell whether Hello Hum disappoints, in that it has not shown enough progress from their past work, or if Wintersleep is just so musically adept that listeners fail to realize that there’s work being done.