Could It Be Different?

Could It Be Different?
Studio album by The Spook School
Released	26 January 2018 (2018-01-26)
Studio	Suburban Home, Leeds
Length	33:31
Label	Fortuna Pop! (UK) Slumberland Records (US)
Producer	Matthew 'MJ' Johnson
The Spook School chronology
Try To Be Hopeful (2015) Could It Be Different? (2018)

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	79/100 [1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Clash	9/10 [3]
Drowned in Sound	8/10 [4]
The Line of Best Fit	7.2/10.0 [5]
The Skinny	[6]

Could It Be Different? is the third and final studio album by Scottish band The Spook School. It was released in January 2018 by Fortuna Pop! in the UK/EU and Slumberland Records in the US.

Clash called it "arguably [...] one of the most important albums of 2018". ^[3] It was long-listed for that years Scottish Album of the Year Award. ^[7]

Opener Still Alive begins with a clip of English comedian Josie Long taken from her show Romance and Adventure.

"If this government is grinding you down, or making you feel hopeless or beaten or anything like that, don’t let them do that to you, because seriously… fuck them." ^{[8] [9]}

Critical reception

Could It Be Different? was met with "generally favorable" reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 79, based on 11 reviews. ^[1] Aggregator Album of the Year gave the release a 79 out of 100 based on a critical consensus of 13 reviews. ^[10]

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Still Alive"	3:13
2.	"Best of Intentions"	1:56
3.	"Less Than Perfect"	2:51
4.	"Keep In Touch"	3:37
5.	"Bad Year"	3:51
6.	"Alright (Sometimes)"	3:03
7.	"I Only Dance When I Want To"	2:48
8.	"I Hope She Loves You"	2:11
9.	"While You Were Sleeping"	2:44
10.	"Body"	3:19
11.	"High School"	3:58

References

1. "Metacritic Review". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
2. Sendra, Tim. "AllMusic Review". AllMusic . Retrieved 18 April 2019.
3. Beech, Dave (12 February 2018). "The Spook School - Could It Be Different?". Clash . Retrieved 27 January 2019.
4. Slaughter, Matthew (3 February 2018). "Drowned in Sound Review". Drowned In Sound. Archived from the original on 18 April 2019. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
5. Travers, Kate (16 January 2018). "The Line of Best Fit Review". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
6. Turner-Heffer, Adam (22 January 2018). "The Skinny Review". The Skinny. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
7. Snapes, Laura (1 August 2018). "Scottish Album of the Year: Mogwai and Young Fathers among nominees". The Guardian . Retrieved 6 February 2019.
8. Pilley, Max (16 May 2018). "The 405 meets The Spook School". The 405. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
9. Atkins, Jamie. "Ex-Fortuna Pop favourites on fire". Record Collector .
10. "Album of the Year Review". Album of the Year. Retrieved 17 September 2020.