After touring for a number of years and building a loyal fan base, The Joy Formidable made a huge impact with their debut album 'The Big Roar'. Long, ferocious soundscapes and enough hooks to make the singles ('Austere', 'Cradle' and 'Whirring') fodder for numerous adverts and PlayStation games. The band even had the dubious honour of having a track selected for the soundtrack to 'Twilight: Breaking Dawn'. This is a band that thrives on the road. Even the recording for their latest record, 'Wolfs Law', took place during a year-long tour promoting their 2011 debut. On top they still found the time to support Foo Fighters on their US tour and Muse in the UK during autumn 2012. Many of the tracks from 'The Big Roar' were culled and re-recorded from early EPs making their debut more like an early years best of. The question is how would their sophomore effort, 'Wolfs Law' compare having not had the benefit of years of refinement. The expectation is a crashing start so it comes as a surprise when opener 'This Ladder Is Ours' opens with delicate strings before launching into a riff-heavy track ready made for TV montages and adverts. 'Cholla' thunders and bellows with the polish and focus a first single should. However, their debut album began with an astounding seven minute track, 'The Everchanging Spectrum Of A Lie', and here in its place we have two radio-friendly singles. Not so much a change in direction or growth, rather a change in ambition. Perhaps a little too long spent on tour with Muse? Maybe. 'Tendons' offers little to get excited about but its literally vocal bass line suggests that the bands creativity has not deserted them. 'Forest Serenade' also fits this bracket. The ambition of the track cannot be questioned but in trying to be everything, it ends up falling between stalls and coming off as incomplete. 'Little Blimp' holds more urgency than anything else so far. Tracks coming in under three minutes are rare for a band that tends to favour sprawling drums and epic bridges, but its undeniable wildness is thrilling. There is more polish to the albums production compared to their previous work but a large chunk of the songs are missing edge and lyrical clarity. In interviews singer Ritzy Bryan has discussed how the lyrics to 'The Leopard and the Lung' are about Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai and how the albums title refers to the theory that breaking a bone can lead to it growing back stronger. Such thoughtful topics are admirable but are not prominent enough to pick up without a cliff notes-style study guide. By the time 'Bats' has finished the line I had a reason but the reason went away appears worryingly accurate. Then I heard 'Silent Treatment'. Acoustic. Simple. Delicate. The three words I would never associate with this band and yet there they are as a tent pole at the centre of the record. It is a beautiful, folksy moment amongst a sea of fuzz pedals. 'Maw Maw Song' is the epic this band is capable of. It is sprawling and absurd as demonstrated by the bonkers solo that engulfs a huge chunk of the track. The near seven minute running time flies by in a haze of prog-rock and psychedelia. Despite being so different to 'Silent Treatment', the pair together show what an incredible diversity the band can reveal if they let loose. The swirling strings that open the final track show a poise and ambition that the band have previously left undiscovered. For all their experimentation, the sweeping Dusty Springfield soaked 'The Turnaround' is their most ambitious track as it flies in the face of anything they have done before by using their power to reveal a beauty that is often hidden under aggressive guitars. The secret title track closes out the album with sincerity but is still defiant about sacrificing muscle and sonic dexterity and, in doing so, encapsulates the band at this point. Even my least favorite songs here are stuffed with great hooks, melodic bass lines and big choruses. These are the ones that will get radio play. The album does not contain a bad song but it also lacks the outstanding. Wolfs Law is the sound of a band capable of taking the next big step but are unsure of their footing as they progress. What is not in doubt is that they have the potential to succeed.