All Through The Night

It's rare to see a band transcending bad influences. The Verve, as most sensible people know, were seriously lacking in heart and soul. The Sand Band are clearly influenced by The Verve (it’s written all over the singer’s delivery), and yet, defying the odds, they’re not bad at all. They seem to have offset the soullessness of their musical antecedents by, well, having a soul, and so when they build up their unoriginal layers of sing-song voices, intricate, twinkly guitar lines, slide guitars and padded-up organs, around their quietly impressive melodies, I actually feel something almost like pleasure. I particularly like the penultimate Midnight Cowboy style title-track, and the feel-good, fortune-cookie spoken-word piece for insomniacs at the end.