My first thoughts on the new tracks were "WOAH". Of course, that was more to do with the fact that the mp3s were 10+mb each. Pesky 320kbps bitrate. The second thought was that "yeah, these are pretty good".
'Smarts' carries the same sort of dynamism that characterised their debut album, 'The Golden Spike', which dropped in February this year. In fact, it was recorded with John Goodmanson, producer of that album and thus expresses a similarly unhinged sound which I felt made the tracks seem overly messy. He does a grand job however on the acoustic recording of 'Matador', capturing the enchanting essence of its folk transformation.
'Smarts' is downloadable above, 'Matador' can be got on the Sky Larkin website.
Website // MySpace // Twitter