This will probably be massive. Heartsore, yearning, it stays just on the tasteful side of David Gray, with a dash of Lancashire grit. There is nothing to dislike about it – in fact, it’s so bloody nice it will divest you of the will to live. It may be tough to resist the folky warmth of ‘4am’ or the Elbowish, string-laced charm of ‘Mathematics’, but harden your heart; everyone thought Keane were harmless at first and look what happened there. There’s touches of the damaged beauty of Wilco or Ryan Adams, but it’s marred by trite lyrics, as on the Embrace-ish maudlin ballad of ‘People Help The People’ or weighed down by the resigned weariness of Simon Aldred’s voice. “I wanna drag you down with me”, he mopes on ‘False Alarm’. Well, you’ve managed.
Emily Mackay