91Èȱ¬

Liam clearly thinks his band sound like Elbow playing U2 songs. And maybe he's right. Trouble is, to these ears it's more like the Twang playing some of Gary Barlow's more grandiose Take That numbers.

Oh sure, it's music on the same scale, the cavernous reverberations behind the band are the same, together with the naked desire to call down the angels from on high to pat them all on the head, pinch their cheeks and do that clicky-finger thing teenage boys do when they want to look cool.

But to get this kind of incantation right, you've got to abandon self-consciousness and throw your whole heart in, like Bono does, like Guy Garvey does. Liam, for all that he's got the confidence and that way with words, can't resist making sure we all know that he's still cool. So he throws in a line like:

"I've never returned a cliche before, and I'll probably never do so"

So we all know he's aware there's something cheesy coming, but just this once, eh?

That little awkward line is incredibly annoying, and breaks up the scene of two lovers before it has even got started. And it's a really odd thing to say, especially when the whole flipping song is nothing but cliche upon homage upon knowing reference upon naked idea copying.

Ultimately, it's up to us to decide whether Liam's ideas are fresh, second hand, or barely worth repeating. And if they're good to go, we don't need reminding in the lyrics, thanks all the same.

Download: Out now
CD Released: April 12th

91Èȱ¬ Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)