Music

Young Knives’ tweedy carapace barely conceals a polemical, gently despairing heartbeat. But this album also suggests that they’re capable of writing the kind of big pop anthems that would parachute this unease into the mainstream. It’s hard not to have mixed feelings about this. What remains most cherishable about them is their singular eccentricity – they’ve got a Robert Wyatt-meets-‘The Wicker Man’ album in them. Then again, they’d also make fantastic pop stars.

String-laden epic ‘Turn Tail’ is a widescreen festival anthem in the making. Happily, the lyrical evocations of collapse, strain and despair keep it a comfortable distance from mortgage-rock blandness. Furthermore, after an opening salvo consisting of smart but slightly generic punk pop, the second half lurches wonderfully towards the dark side. There’s another of the Knives’ suicide songs, bassist House Of Lords warbles prettily about being covered in a blanket of flies and ‘Current Of The River’ finds them taking their leave on a jolting, beautifully sinister note. We can probably rely on them not to turn into Snow Patrol just yet.