Rides

Reef are not the future of rock and roll. In fact, if we have to talk in such grandiose terms about this four-piece from Glastonbury, the best you can say is that they produce an adequate simulation of heavy rock music from the late '60s/early '70s. Rides is all shapes but very little substance.

Even if you set aside the plethora of clichéd guitar riffs that run through every track, you're still left with lyrics woefully short of any depth, meaning, insight or originality. Too often in the first half of the album, the opening four lines of the song are just repeated as fillers.

Hence, 'New Bird' is a growling mess about needing a change of country or something. The new single, 'Something To Say' doesn't (have anything to say, that is). Reef also have this annoying habit of changing a song halfway through without any relevance to what has gone before.

Things get a little better from track six, 'Sweety'. 'Spooky' is an admirable call-to-understanding and 'Metro' a tender pop tune. 'Love Feeder' also attempts to avoid the more turgid rock riffs that sound great in the empty zones of large stadia but are exposed as indulgent in the heart of your living room.

Rides will be lapped up by all those who think that this sort of music has some higher political agenda. However, bad art is always conservative. Needless to say, Reef's third album is not essential listening.