The seismic effect bands like The Kinks have had on contemporary music can’t be overstated, to the point where one wonders just when it starts to become a negative. That idiosyncratic, quintessentially English sound is a noose round the neck of dozens of up-and-coming bands; for every Libertines, there are twenty Don’t Moves. The New Found Pop Sound Of… is not a wholly dreadful album: it just doesn’t warrant such a weighty adjective. However, it's mundane, it’s formulaic, it’s trite and, at 13 tracks, it’s ten songs too long. While the band try to mix things up from time to time (the sitar-like sounds on She Only Went To Hang The Washing Out, the organ on Don't Tell, the occasional burst of accordion) this is as bog-standard a pub rock record you’ll ever encounter. Even in the purposely grey days of The Smiths, the soundscapes of Albion rarely sounded so depressing.
1/5
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