The dreamscapes within Always Returning aren't the liveliest, as more often than not they float on into some kind of content oblivion. Always detached from some kind of grounded beauty, Engineers used their fourth LP to play up intricate, masterful detail and stir it into a whirlpool of hypnotic banality, where moments of brilliant craft only briefly shine through generic synthesizer frolics and distant vocal clouds.
That isn't to say that Always Returning is the work of inexperienced shoegazers and dream poppers who have no business behind a soundboard. Engineers are more than competent with their sound design, adding textures from bombastic to subtle in Always Returning's grooves. Whether it's the glowing synthesizers that flutter behind the climatic title track or the drifting guitar chimes in album opener “Bless the Painter,” Engineers keep Always Returning as crisp as it is free-floating; nothing is really out of place and even the tiniest details are addressed, even if the end result seems lost.
When it comes to the actual songwriting, though, Always Returning hovers between transcendental indie pop and downright boredom. The songs stretch out through kruplunking pianos and Brian Eno synthesizers with tepid drums trailing along while breathy vocals are exchanged between guitarist Mark Peters and guest Sophie McDonnell. The songs monotonously drift, never breaking from their dreamscape's tone.
It also doesn't help that Always Returning's dreams are devoted to ambiguous identities and storytelling, like with the break-up contemplations of "It Rings so True": “It's what you want, the party's gone/ Into a mist of days." In contrast, the instrumentals seem to bring out a beautiful daze or sense of wonder that Engineers' storytelling just can't. The ambient “Smoke and Mirrors” indeed stands out amidst Always Returning's drawn-out synthscapes.
Yet even at its most diverse, like the dance-happy “Searched for Answers,” Always Returning drags through its dreamy clouds with little regard to breaking through; Engineers are complacent in their somber guitar glides and dissonant vocals, their dull storytelling and their soundscapes stuck in contemplation. A few gems gleam with moments of striking beauty and dazed joys, but Always Returning never really realizes what's floating around in their forty-minute reverie.
Rating: C-
