Album: The Hours - Narcissus Road (A&M)

The Hours trade on the fact they’re survivors. Antony Genn and Martin Slattery have been on the fringes or in the background for a decade or so; Genn with Elastica and Pulp, while Slattery played keyboards in Black Grape. The cynicism that comes with experience is all over debut, Narcissus Road, leading the album to sound like an episode of Grumpy Old Men soundtracked by Doves. If that sounds harsh or reductive then that’s because all the bluster and noise conjured up is merely a transparent fascia for an awful lot of fist-shaking that rings a little hollow. The album talks a good fight, but where’s the depth?

Narcissus Road is a morass of crashing piano chords, chiming guitars, needless string sections and clever-clever intertextuality that never knits together as a satisfying whole. Occasionally, The Hours strike the right balance between skyscraping, arena-rock musicality and sneering knowingness, like on ‘Ali In The Jungle’ and the slyly funky ‘Love You More’, both of which have fire in their belly to spare, something which is sorely missing elsewhere on the album.

More often than not though, Narcissus Road descends into joyless balladeering, ham-fisted referencing and excruciating attempts at injecting songs with intensity that come over contrived. Their cause seems more noble than most bands of their ilk, but there’s little more than a streak of calculated world-weariness separating The Hours from Snow Patrol or Embrace. Disappointingly flat in spite of its obvious ambition, Narcissus Road is a tiresome listening experience that is more likely to have you chewing your fist in frustration than pumping it with elation.

http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=2323&band=1440