6

Debut album from laidback indie band.

The debut album from Joff Winks Band entitled 'Songs for Days' hopes to build on the positive attention built around the band via their three singles. It seems that every band around at the moment has at least one fan at 6Music and indeed this one is no exception after the band played a live session for Gideon Coe. Joff Winks Band have also supported the likes of The Earlies and Regina Spektor. So it's a little surprising that the album amounts to nothing very much at all.

Intro 'Book End' is instrumental and entirely superfluous and 'Revisited Song' could not have a more apt title, sounding as it does so much like many other songs. Musically the sound on such songs is reminiscent of Feeder at their most melodic and dreary. There's no obvious passion or verve here, just a lot of plodding along at a mid-tempo pace. 'Cast Adrift' tackles the subject of nostalgia but lines like "I know some people have nostalgia for flares" and "kid's TV it's changed" have no real insight to offer.

Songs like 'Jumper' and 'Ace Train' both of which meander beyond seven minutes are just far too long, and indeed the same could be said for almost every song here, as every song feels longer than it is. It's hard to not what else to say with a middle of the road, garden-variety album such as this. There's just nothing to hold onto here, meaning the songs float from my mind all too easily to be rapidly replaced by something much better. Possibly music that could lull you along nicely if you were relaxing in the bath but there's little else to recommend here as 'Songs for Days' falls directly in-between good and bad.