The third album from Canadians Young Galaxy is another stand-out release from 2011 that would no doubt have made it onto my albums of the year list, had I not only got around to actually buying it in January 2012.

I first came across Young Galaxy back in 2007, when they released their self-titled debut album. It was a wonderful record, featuring such great tracks as ‘The Alchemy Between Us’ and ‘The Sun’s Coming Up And My Plane’s Going Down’. But somehow, despite front-couple Stephen Ramsay and Catherine McCandless coming across like some kind of shoegazey Win and Regine and the support of fellow Montrealites The Besnard Lakes, the band failed to catch on. When they played a show at Sonic Cathedral on December 3, 2007, it was one of the quietest we’ve done. A shame, because they were incredible; they had enough gear for Wembley Arena but they were playing on the floor at The Social because there wasn’t room on the stage. The evening culminated in Stephen telling an inappropriate anecdote about doing a runner the last time he’d been to the same venue.

After this, they quit their label and self-released second album ‘Invisible Republic’ in 2009. It had an even bigger, almost stadium-sized sound which makes ‘Shapeshifting’ seem even more strange. Their third album is essentially a collaboration with Swedish producer Dan Lissvik (one half of the now defunct Studio) – a man who was based thousands of miles away in Gothenburg, and whom they had never met. He essentially deconstructed the band over the course of nine months, wrapping the songs they emailed him in tropical disco beats (‘Cover Your Tracks’) and soaring synths (‘High And Goodbye’). The bombast and bluster of the previous two records has gone completely, replaced with something much more intimate and, as a result, much more affecting.