It’d be difficult for anyone familiar with the sheer breadth of Youngs’ musical endeavours to sensibly label this release as truly out-of-step with his oeuvre. Obviously, Richard Youngs has written ‘songs’ before, but “Beyond The Valley Of The Ultrahits” is his most purposefully commercial song work to date. Some tracks here might be elongated, synth based and fractured – but they’re still verse/chorus/verse based. A thread touching upon the sea, all its mystery, beauty and possibilities, appears to run album-long and gives the album a grace and steady centre. The instrumentation relies on synth lines and drum machine, but the whole thing remains supple and melodic. This gentleness is thanks largely to Youngs’ vocals – always a delight and infused with a beautiful traditional folk music sensibility of song. His self-harmonising builds his temperate voice into a battalion of gentle folk, an ever-present purity that overcomes any possible difficult meeting of world’s vibes with the electronics and voice. Even when the guitar solos on “Collapsing Stars” and “Love In The Great Outdoors” disintegrate, the songs are incapable of not gelling and staying on course. A mighty, mighty hearted album. 10/10 -- Scott McKeating (2 September, 2009)