A CD retrospective - Through the windowpane

I got extremely bored this evening, and as it's still January I couldn't alleviate my boredom with alcohol.  So I decided to listen to another album and write about it.

Through the windowpane by Guillemots

I was on a flight from London Gatwick to Orlando a few months after this album came out.  It was one of the albums available in full during the flight.  One of my friends spent the entire 8 hour flight listening to it on a loop.  I listened to it once but wasn't really as receptive as I could have been - I don't think I was in the mood for it.
I was familiar with one song, Trains to Brazil.  It's a song I always associate with my friends, and is the sort of thing we can shout/sing at any opportunity - the first few lines at least.

During a spell of unemployment in 2008 I picked the album up and I was far more appreciative of it.  There's an unusual path the album seems to take, sometimes it's bouncing, energetic, sometimes the vocals are thick with despair - it's a bit of a ride.  The 5th track on the album "come away with me" feels a lot like a trippy interlude and seems to carry with it a change in style for the rest of the album.
The highlight of the album for me is the last track, São Paulo.  It's over 11 minutes and has a brilliant orchestral weight behind it and some clever arrangement - there are strings, brass, wind and percussion all swaying in the mix.
The reason it's my highlight is the finale, the whole album swells and calms throughout - and São Paulo is when everything just gets too much, it's a last attack - it fizzes up to a near cacophony and then dies away brilliantly.