Instrumental space rock jam Dark Horse lends proceedings a cosmic dimension, just as Hooked and bonus track Existential Crisis inject a certain drama. Stoneman is by some distance the album’s most memorable tune, frontman Huw Edwards delivering its hooks with honeyed vocals that, in conjunction with sprightly basslines and prominent synths, border on yacht rock or funk-adjacent ’80s pop. A tacked-on spoken word coda feels like another misstep, though.
Similarly, Is This Real, which adopts similar sun-dappled nostalgia to Tame Impala, really doesn’t need to last over eight minutes - but it does boast an unexpectedly killer guitar solo. That’s Onism in a microcosm: (mostly) decent songs, played with real skill, sometimes over-reaching and coming a cropper, but ultimately deserving of your time.
Verdict: 3/5
For fans of: Muse, Queens Of The Stone Age, Nothing But Thieves
Onism is self-released on November 1