Ever see a trailer for a film that made you count the days until its release, only to emerge from the darkness of the cinema disappointed that all the best bits were in that short preview? That’s kind of what Endless Now feels like.
When lead single ‘Bones’ surfaced in June, it confidently announced itself as the kind of song that would wear out the repeat button on your iPod and live forever in your heart.
Here, over six all-too-fleeting minutes, ‘Bones’ grabs the listener and refuses to let go, ushering in a foot-stomping anthem of a chorus that celebrates heartbreak with devastating passion, as John Arthur Webb croons: “I won’t be that fine, that fine forever/I can’t be your feelings that keep you together”.

It’s not just the best track on the album, but one of the best songs you’re likely to hear all year. Problem is, it proves to be an impossible act for Male Bonding to follow. There are nice ideas at work here, such as the clap-a-long haze of ‘Carrying’ and the playful darkness of ‘What’s That Scene?’, while ‘Dig You Out’ sounds like the kind of song Green Day might have written back when they gave a shit – but Endless Now is ultimately an oddly hollow experience.

While Male Bonding swim in the pop end of the punk pool, there is a distracting degree of oldschool repetition on display across Endless Now. Couple that with the washed-out production employed to create a sense of dream-like wonder, and you wind up with an album that in the end feels, well, endless. Disappointing.