An alt-folk five piece from East Yorkshire who take their name from REM’s surf rock song and feature a largely acoustic line-up that includes mandolin, bouzouki, cajon and flute, their debut album captures my attention immediately with opening track Regret, a wearily reflective ‘wish I was a better man’ number with a great singalong chorus, a hint of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, and Leigh Hirst’s soft burr vocals recalling a young Iain Matthews.
Unfortunately for them, it’s so good it overshadows even something as strong as the choppy folk pop of Snakes And Ladders with its catchy chorus and the fiery fiddle driven Say Something while weaker numbers such as strings drenched ballad A New Dawn, flamenco hurried Last Cigarette and Betty Watson, a run of the mill trad styled tale of a fallen woman suicide, are thrown into starker relief that might otherwise be the case.
There’s a slight problem too in that, while Hirst has a pleasant voice, he rarely flexes it beyond the soft comfort zone, so that whatever the instruments may be doing, many of the songs tend to sound a little samey.
There are a couple of other high points though. Combining lyrics from different versions and tweaking the tune, the rousing Three Score And Ten is a traditional number based on the poem of the same name detailing the 1889 storm that took the lives of some 60 to 70 Grimsby fishermen while, sticking with local history, The Burning Sky recalls the bombing of Hull in 1945.
It’s a listenable enough set, but next time they’ll either have to up their consistency or remember not to put their best track at the start.
via NetRhythms: Current Album, DVD and Book reviews.