Covenant - Leaving Babylon (2013)

Originating from Sweden, Covenant have been around since the early 90s. Leaving Babylon is their eighth album and despite its ups and downs there's certainly a lot to like here.

The album opens with the title track Leaving Babylon, which is a repetitive and hypnotic song. It's a decent song that walks you into the album and acts as an intro.

The second track, Prime Movers, leaves the introduction behind and suddenly the album comes to live. From then on, the album has its ups and downs but generally delivers excellent beats and melodies. 

Prime Movers and Four Our Time are great examples of simple, hypnotic and fascinating future-pop. There's a little harshness to the beats but a very gentle and mellow side to the music that creates a perfect balance to the songs. 

But the two standout songs of the album are Ignorance and Bliss and Last Dance. Both of them are really powerful songs that manage to combine classic and retro synth sounds with very solid future-pop beats. Both tracks are perfectly crafted and memorable; the kind of song that I can't get enough of and I know I'll be coming back for again and again.

Overall, this is a very uneven album with some decent tracks, some good tracks and some of the best electronic music this year.

Rating: Good Vibrations