With their 2018 album Mogic, Hen Ogledd evolved from the amorphous improvisations of their earliest phases into something resembling a more traditionally molded pop band. They didn't completely shake the wooly weirdness that initially defined the project, but incorporated it into structured songs that pitted hopeful melodies against noisy electronics and heady lyrical themes. If Mogic was Hen Ogledd dipping their toes into pop, its successor Free Humans is the band diving in headlong. The ambitious double album finds Hen Ogledd further refining their take on pop sounds, presenting neatly produced tunes that offer straightforward hooks, anthemic choruses, and a generally less cluttered rendering of the band's maximal aesthetic. The best examples of this kind of clean pop come with songs like "Trouble." Even the poppiest tunes on Mogic came coated in psychedelic production or with moments of uneasiness to counterbalance their sweetness. "Trouble" is perhaps the most direct the group have ever sounded, with vocals loud in the mix, understated interplay between synth lines and a shadowy '80s-sounding bass line, and a huge, clearly defined chorus. It's somewhere between the lonely nocturnal energy of Fleetwood Mac's Tango in the Night and a low-budget emulation of Thriller-era radio hits. Elsewhere on the album, the bright synths and singsongy playfulness of "Crimson Star" recall ABBA, and the placid electronics and steady rhythms of "Remains" nod to Kraftwerk, while the vocals give the song a twee touch. Even while reveling in pop, Hen Ogledd don't completely abandon their abstract roots or tendencies towards disruption. "The Loch Ness Monster's Song" is a disorienting swirl of voices and computerized tones on par with Kate Bush's most out-there experiments, and tracks like "Bwganod" and "Paul is 9ft Tall (Marsh Gas)" are anxious and crowded. "Time Party" masquerades as a by-the-numbers old-school dance-pop track, but the meandering synths and avant sax sputtering in the background give it a mutant edge. Even the most straightlaced tunes are overlaid with expressive guitar solos from founding member Richard Dawson, imparting them with a sense of restless curiosity. Free Humans is a dense album, with sounds stuffed into every available space and fields of ideas painstakingly arranged on each song. Both precisely calculated and boundlessly imaginative, Free Humans creates an expansive world in which Hen Ogledd can continue to sculpt their bizarre brand of pop music.