There's an old adage that says a band has a lifetime to write its first album, but only two or three years to compose its second. Many artists aren't quite up to the challenge and run out of fresh idea in short order - hence the disappointing number of sophomore-slump efforts cluttering the cutout bins at any given record store. But every once in a while, an exceptional group returns with a second album that not only lives up to the early promise of its excellent debut, but completely exceeds the already lofty expectations of fans, critics and even the band member themselves.

Case in point is the London trio SOUTH, who dazed and sometimes confused enthusiasts of rock, electronica, and everything in between with their sprawlingly ambitious 2001 space-rock odyssey, From Here On In, yet have somehow managed to outdo themselves on this year's WITH THE TIDES, in stores now. While on the surface the new album is a more straightforward and streamlined affair, trimmed of the DJ-breakbeat interludes of its predecessor and clocking in at 43 minutes (compared to From Here On In's whopping 70), in many ways it is exponentially more sophisticated, the result of South's immeasurable growth via nonstop touring. "This album is about a band spending three years on the road - doing three tours of America, a tour of Japan, and shows all over Europe - and then taking that energy back to the studio," explains founding band member Brett Shaw. Sure, maybe South only had three fleeting years to create their all-important follow-up album...but evidently those were three years well-spent.

Far from giving up, by 1999 the trio had developed a dreamy, groove-laden dance/rock sound so uniquely unclassifiable that James Lavelle of the experimental trip-hop group UNKLE took a chance and made South an unlikely signing to his mainly electronic record label, MoWax Recordings in a joint effort with Kinetic Records for release in America. He enlisted South on several remixes, including an Unkle mix of Ian Brown's "Dolphins Were Monkeys," and even went so far as to co-produce From Here On In, but South were no Lavelle pet project - the direction they were taking was always entirely their own. "The first album was a co-production thing, but we already had all the songs in place; we weren't trying to make a record that fit in with the MoWax roster," McDonald stresses. "From the very first demos we did, there was always that electronic element. Some people think James brought the beats to the record, but actually that was already quite part of our sound."

After composing the soundtrack to Sexy Beast, the Oscar-nominated film debut by renowned music video director Jonathan Glazer (who lensed Unkle's exquisitely disturbing "Rabbit In Your Headlights" clip), South amicably parted ways with MoWax to go solely with Kinetic Records (although they have contributed a track to the forthcoming new UNKLE album); however, both their MoWax tenure and film work positioned South on the path that has led them to the wide-open soundscapes of With The Tides, a proverbial next-level album that definitively signifies the arrival of an important and special band

Expertly but never heavy-handedly produced by Manic Street Preachers/Idlewild/Ash knob-twiddler Dave Eringa and engineered by Moke guitarist Sean Genockey, With The Tides' 12 songs are "epic, but contained, instead of sprawling into eight minutes - that way, they have more of an impact," singer Joel Cadbury declares. "We made a really conscious decision to put the songs right to the front on this record, and not be scared about it." One listen to With The Tides and it's clear that no band should be afraid to unveil such stunning prog-pop symphonies as the explosively, urgently, blissfully melodic "Same Old Story" and "Colours In Waves"; the brittle, wintry, goosebump-inducing ballads "Nine Lives" and "Fragile Days"; the excessively echo-drenched "Loosen Your Hold"; or the magnificently massive album outro, "Threadbare." Together, such tracks form an immediate yet esoteric opus that is both a headphones record and a party record, a simultaneously joyous and introspective long-player, with tunes so gorgeously grandiose yet perfectly pop-crafted.

And so, while still in their early twenties and only on their second full-length release, South have achieved the near-impossible goal of pushing their music forward without ever forcing it, and without losing the original magic that made From Here On In such an attention-grabbing debut. No easy feat, but when the chemistry between band members is as potent as it is between these three lifelong mates - who are thankful that they're "still not killing each other, and that there are still things that one of us will be working on in the studio that excites the others" - everything clicks into place as effortlessly as one of South's melodies lodges in the listener's brain. "The bottom line," Cadbury states of his band's ultimate ambition, "is when you analyze any great record, it's not technically right or wrong, it just sounds great without questioning it. When you put it in the CD player, it just sounds big and loud...and right."

Mission accomplished, then. It seems for South, the only way is up.