Of English, Canadian, Brazilian and Scottish origins, Guillemots are – not surprisingly really – a mixed up bunch.
While this has often been the impetus for some inspiring music down the years, here Guillemots simply sound like a band pulling in four different directions. At times, mind, they do manage to make it gel into an unlikely whole. ‘Trains To Brazil’, for example, is a glorious mess, a sunny and infectious pop song. ‘Made Up Love Song 3’ is more of the same, pitting a falsetto vocal against a funky bassline and indie rock guitars.
Yet such semi-rich pickings aren’t really representative of the album as a whole. Most of it falls into that frustrating middle ground of being neither stunning nor dreadful (apart from ‘Over The Stairs’, which is a complete howler). The blame for this perhaps lies with the fact that From The Cliffs is in reality a collection of two EPs as opposed to a debut album proper and it’s hard to escape the impression that this sounds like a couple of good singles saddled with some throwaway b-sides.
Maybe a tad less haste would have been advisable because, in the end, From The Cliffs does Guillemots few favours.