All On The Black

Leya are blessed with bags of ambition. Sparse for the most part, ‘All On The Black’ is powered almost solely by Ciaran Gribbin’s soaring vocals and lyrics of departing love. Of course the crash of drums and guitar half way through comes, as expected, but nonetheless there’s a scope to the track that sets the Belfast rockers apart from most of their peers. Hardly likely to burn up the airwaves, it’s an indicator of a band focussed on producing music their way. Comparisons with Jeff Buckley are obvious, if a tad lazy. But if there are comparisons to be made, then a harder edged cousin of Elbow is perhaps closer to the mark.