The Dodos — Time To Die

The most noticeable difference between Time To Die and The Dodos' acclaimed 2008 release, Visiter, is a reduced focus on drums. The percussion is still present on Time To Die, and it's still as erratic and as tribal as it was, but it has been noticeably pushed into the background.

As a result, singer Meric Long has taken centre stage. With this alteration in place, The Dodos now sound uncannily like The Shins post-Oh, Inverted World.

The Dodos also take a very different approach with album structure — they've gone from 14 mostly short songs (on Visiter), to nine lengthy ones for this new effort. Song construction is thus a little more sophisticated.

Time To Die is definitely a sleeker, less reckless effort. It's not a stretch to assume producer Phil Ek (Built To Spill, Fleet Foxes) influenced the new polish. It's a shimmering pop success considered on its own, but judged in comparison to The Dodos' existing catalogue, there's a good chance some fans will be majorly turned off by this third full-length.

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