Shulamith is the second album from Polica following the release of their stunning debut Give You The Ghost lin 2013, an arresting record that put them on the map with their unique and melancholic electro-pop sound.

Give You The Ghost demonstrated Polica’s artful and atmospheric sound with their distinctive drum, bass, synth combination, thickly coated with singer Channy Leaneagh’s digitized vocals, leaving the overall result to expel a compelling and haunting effect.

With this in mind, it’s fair to say that Shulamith achieves exactly the same and acts as an extension to the sound they achieved on their first record. This record sees Polica push their sound even further by ramping up the digitized and electro elements tenfold.

'Shulamith' itself means peace, and Leaneagh has stated that the title and record acts as homage to the feminist activist Shulamith Firestone. The notion of peace can be felt in some of the tracks, ‘Vegas’, ‘Trippin’ and ‘Warrior Lord’ all posses a slow groove quality with R&B infused electro beats that shows a calmness that was absent from Give You The Ghost. However, the darker elements in the overall sound still remain, particularly on heavier tracks such as ‘Very Cruel’, where anger and pain is clearly audible and ramped up by frantic and harsh synths. ‘Tiff’, featuring the haunting vocals of Justin Vernon manages to perfectly merge both the R&B groove and Polica’s trademark dark edge, showing exactly the direction the band have moved to, and it’s incredibly good.

Despite the substantial auto-tuning applied to Leaneagh’s vocals which manages to distort her voice to the extreme, the lyrics are audibly concerned with the agony over the collapse of a relationship and the subsequent unrequited love. This allows for the feminist influence on the record to become very apparent. ‘I Need $’ sees Channy gently and digitally sing “I don’t need a man, All that he does I can, I can, I don’t need a love, Got enough worry to fill me up.”

The album highlight however is the album’s lead single ‘Chain My Heart’, an opening track bursting with an energetic riff and a synth fuelled fast paced electronic beat, making it by far the most memorable track on the album. Shulamith as a whole is an excellent second record and shows that the direction from one of the most innovative bands in alternative pop continues to be very exciting.