Walk The River

The Guillemots’ third album begins really well with twanging Chris Isaak guitars vying with twinkling glockenspiels, a harpsichord thingy and Fyfe Dangerfield’s anguished refrain (“Walk the River/Like a hunted animal”). It’s the title track and it’s powerful stuff. They keep the quality at a similar level with the acoustically driven second song ‘Vermillion’, and then gradually over the next 30 minutes, they turn into a bland, easy-listening, U2ish, MOR band wearing slippers (probably). “Dude, you used to be cool!” you feel like saying. “Thirty minutes ago at the start of the album, you used to be cool!” It’s like that telly ad in which the lady ages slowly over the course of 30 seconds. Here you can hear a band go from innovative to bland over the course of less than an hour. There may be people out there who’ll love this. But don’t look at me.