Album review: The Travelling Band - Sails
They have been going for around a decade, so Mancunians The Travelling Band (TTB) have had time to hone their sound.
Carrying a dusky aura like a sunset over a darkened desert plain, their lighter approach is solid to a point, but ultimately leaves you wanting more.
Ben Nichols is the perfect example. The country star's hit The Last Pale Light In The West was immortalised by the Walking Dead when they used it as The Governor's Theme. He has the ability to write great songs like this, but after a time of listening to his music you want something else.
TTB suffer the same fate. A lot of this, their sixth record since 2008 debut Under The Pavement, passes you by without much registering.
It's lighter, fluffier folk/rock/pop. Like The Feeling, but without some of the catchy hooks that made immediate hits out of songs like Fill My Little World.
They build big sounds based on guitars, percussion and horn section. But the lighter approach sometimes leaves it feeling hollow.
The rockier moments like Wasted Eyes try and breathe life into proceedings but the result still feels light and cheesy when compared to contemporary artists. Maybe trying too hard to find gravitas.
The album briefly wakes up in the middle with the fun romper stomper Unlike You. Deeper and darker in nature, the harmonies of the chorus coupled with squeaking guitar is like a cross between Mumford & Sons and Coldplay.
There's also the quietly ominous brief instrumental Out Of The Water that builds a tense feeling of foreboding in the same manner the soundtrack to Christopher Nolan's war epic Dunkirk did.
But we are soon back to normality. There are too many tracks where the pace makes it feel like a drag. The lengths of Into The Water and Mopping Forwards - the latter with its country vibe - should be much shorter. The record would feel less of a drag if they were.
This is Sunday accompaniment music at its finest. Something to clean along to. You won't want to let it accompany the more exciting parts of your life. It wouldn't keep up.
Rating: 5/10
The Travelling Band stop off at Birmingham's Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath on November 23.
