A highly enjoyable Dance Pop Rock album.

There's much to like about this debut solo album from the Neon Trees front-man Tyler Glenn. Slick vocals, shimmering Pop tunes and hummable melodies hint at the influence that Glenn has on the overall sound of his full-time outfit. The arrangements are perhaps simpler, it's a little more Dance-orientated than NT and the lyrics are far more visceral and cathartic than the bright and shiny Pop happiness of, say, 'Pop Psychology'.

Much of the album deals with Glenn's departure from the Mormon Church as a gay man. It's open, honest and serious, the Disco grooves of 'G.D.M.M.L Girls' somewhat hiding the serious message that Glenn wants to get over – God didn't make me like girls. The album title tells the story, but the Mormon Church choosing to exclude gay people as a policy provides the narrative rather than the focal point for this highly enjoyable Dance Pop Rock album.

The Bolshoi backbeat of 'Trash' represents Glenn's obvious feelings about how the Mormon Church felt towards him and his subsequent dealings with the consequences, whilst other songs reflect on the singer's feeling toward his sexuality in the wider domain; 'Shameless' to that end feels like a two finger salute to his former religion. When Glenn decrees on the haunting Funk Pop of 'Gates' to "get me far away from Salt Lake City" you know that 'Excommunication' is as much about exorcising demons created by Tyler Glenn's unorthodox Christian past as it is about creating a more than worthwhile tenebrous Pop Rock album.

Mike Newdeck