A Drink & A Quick Decision - Grand National

As opening track Reason To Hide In slides its way along, expectations rise for Grand National's second album, A Drink & A Quick Decision. So much so that you begin to overlook the Hall & Oates inspired album title itself. It's really a rather good opener.

The problem is that too little of the album that follows matches up to that high standard.

It's not to say that there aren't other fantastic tracks on there, such as By The Time I Get Home... and the pop-tastic New Space To Throw, but there's an awful lot that is difficult to detest, but very hard to fall in love with. It also gets rather depressingly similar as the album progresses.

It's one thing to ape the likes of New Order but when you come up with something as, well, average as this you're really setting yourself up for a fall.