I wasn't a fan of the Raveonettes until Lust, Lust, Lust. I liked their three earlier albums and thought they were decent and intriguing band. Lust, Lust, Lust was just the culmination of their sound into something very good indeed and I was well impressed by it as an album.

But has anyone heard their recent EPs of late? Not including the REMIXED one (which is a bit neither here nor there for me), Beauty Dies, Sometimes They Drop By and Wishing You A Rave Christmas (yes, that's right, a Christmas EP), are all very, very impressive. There is definitely a progression here and development in the sound - Wagner has suddenly thought about what he might be able to do with synthesizers - and the results are great, even superb.

Tracks like 'Young & Beautiful', 'Sometimes They Drop By', and 'Vintage Future' are some of the best songs they have ever done, and probably some of the best shoe gaze/ dream pop I've heard too. The whole thing made me want to watch Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet strangely enough; it just has that disturbing otherworldlyness about it.

If this is taste of the direction that Wager/ Foo are going to develop for a fifth album then I'm salivating. And yes, the Christmas EP is good - really.