There are generally two ways you come to realize an album’s greatness: 1) with repeated listening it grows on you or 2) its brilliance slaps you in the face from the start. On Vaccine, however, Younger Brother creates a new way to present its greatness and the formula draws on a decades-old vision.

From the first notes of the opening track, “Crystalline,” the sense that we are on to something good is clearly apparent. It’s not until you keep listening that you realize that the album gets better and better with every track until about ¾ of the way through, when you realize that you’ve been led down the trail of greatness.

This type of progression is sorely missing in an age of digital downloads, where music is seen as more of a commodity to be given away on the underside of soda bottle caps than an art form. What Younger Brother has done is deliver an album that progresses, undulating and evolving from front to back. As such, listening to each track individually is like focusing on only the Mona Lisa’s nose or ear.

Drawing equally from Pink Floyd, Autechre, Radiohead, and Vespertine-era Bjork, Vaccine is a bit of a departure from previous Younger Brother efforts. And like those just listed, there can be a quick jump to label Vaccine as a minimalist album, but it’s not. Minimalism is characterized by minimal instrumentation—the art of taking just a few sounds and making something bigger with them.

What Younger Brother masters on Vaccine is the complex art of arrangement. Songs like “Train,” for instance, may sound minimal because there is an openness that breathes. That openness, however, is created by brilliant compositional skills with different instruments playing complementing parts, not just the same parts. As such, each element works together to create listening experiences that are akin to sonic escapes.

Further, the brilliance of Vaccine’s compositional achievement goes beyond harmonic structure; it’s prevalent in space like tempo, where long, sweeping synth pads are supported by jazz-infused drum-n-bass beats and guitar chord vamps on upbeats, pulling from reggae techniques, but not leaving a trace of reggae to be found. Check out the lead single, “Night Lead Me Astray” (and its nod to the Queensryche classic “Silent Lucity”) to see how it all works.

Because of the progressive nature of Vaccine, singling out standout tracks is a near impossibility. Still, you could throw a dart and hit greatness on this one. Do yourself a favor, though, don’t just put this on as background music; set aside some time to experience it… and consider it time well spent.

Then don’t be surprised when this shows up on a lot of “Best of 2011” lists at year’s end.

Vaccine (released April 26, 2011/ SCI Fidelity Records) is the third album by genre-bending U.K. outfit Younger Brother. And while members Simon Posford, Benji Vaughan and Ruu Campbell remain royalty on the electronic music scene, (the album reached #2 on iTunes’ electronic music chart), Vaccine marks a notable evolution from the band’s electronic origins, embracing melodic song structures and organic instrumental sounds. The result is turning heads, and ears.

Check out a rare acoustic Younger Brother performance here.

Vaccine’s nine original songs incorporate elements of catchy uber-pop, early American folk and blues, and vintage prog-rock, with lyrics that balance pointed humor and weighty philosophical matters, giving the album a level of intimacy and emotion that’s not normally associated with electronic music. The release continues Younger Brother’s evolution from studio project to full-fledged, organic band, with Posford, Vaughan and Campbell joined by Marc Brownstein (Disco Biscuits) on bass, Tom Hamilton (Brothers Past) on guitar and Joe Russo (who also plays in the Grateful Dead spin-off act Furthur) on drums.

The U.S. release of Vaccine coincides with Simon Posford’s other current project: the highly anticipated “Shpongle presents The Shpongletron Experience.” For this massive run of Shpongle “Hybrid” DJ dates, Posford reveals his brand-new “Decks, FX & 101″ show made up of an arsenal of turntables, synths, and effects units. The elaborately staged multi-media presentation, which Posford describes as a “maelstrom of beauty and surprise,” will raise the bar on Shpongle’s longstanding reputation for providing mind-bending, fully immersive multi-dimensional, multi-sensory experiences.