Heroes to Zeros

The third and final studio album was produced by the band, mixed by Nigel Godrich and released by Regal on 26 April 2004. It was recorded from September 2002 to November 2003 at Rockfield Studios, including a period under the producer Tom Rothrock that left neither the band nor the label happy. Mason later told Record Collector that they should not have produced it themselves and that they did an even worse job of the mixing, after which the label handed it to Godrich.

Pete Fry, Neil Martin and Pete Gainey play brass on Assessment, and Dominic Pecher, Alex Lyon, Ben Lee and Ruston Pomeroy play strings on Troubles and Simple. Kaare Andrews drew the cover, and Dave McCaig made the logo. Liquid Bird samples Painted Bird by Siouxsie and the Banshees. Assessment was the lead single on 12 April 2004, with Out-Side following in July.

Reviews were divided. Pitchfork's Matt LeMay named Out-Side the standout but felt the record leaned on form and formula, and Lynskey of the Guardian gave it three stars out of five, picking out Out-Side and the multipart cosmic pop of Space. In the Guardian, Dave Simpson said it received the best reviews of their career, and in Pitchfork Paul Thompson said it arrived to near-universal praise but fair-to-middling sales. It scored 74 out of 100 on Metacritic and is included in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.