Everything Last Winter - Fields

This album comes with so much hype behind it (fuelled by the rapturous reception to the singles that preceded it) that it's almost begging you to not like it; begging you to cut through the expectation and come down on the negative side of the equation.

Well as much as you try you won't come down on the negative side of the equation at all. No, its not a consistently brilliant album but it is a good one.

From the moment that opening song Song For The Fields switches gears from its slow and gentle beginning and goes all out rock you are drawn in and whilst this "slow build and then BAM!" trick does perhaps get a little bit familiar over the course of the album it never really ceases to amaze.

They do save the best for (almost the) last. If You Fail We All Fail is quite simply sublime and the only downside to it is perhaps that it's so good that it can't help overshadow the album as a whole.

Still this is a great debut which bodes well for the future. And a salient nod to the fact that hype doesn't always equate to tripe.