A sleep inducing affair.
I Am Kloot are one of those bands typical of the Echo Label, they're British, radio friendly, peaceful and at times introspective. The sad thing about I Am Kloot is that there really isn't much here to set them apart from the Echo crowd, and especially not enough to make them stand out as contenders to the label's heavy hitters Feeder and new wonders The Engineers.
This kind of music is so inoffensive that your mum would probably play this while she's doing the dishes, now, that doesn't make it bad, just dreary and quiet, and at times monotonous. Compared to their previous work, it is easy to see how this band have progressed and grown up to mature their sound, but their sound is elevator background music, there is nothing distinct that sets them apart from the millions of other soundalike bands.
The only few tracks I would recommend from this album would be "Hong Kong Lullabye" which is a beautifully arranged instrumental track that could actually be the new cure for insomnia, and "No Direction Home", though not dealing with much lyrically, sounds different from the rest of the album as it has a noticeable inclusion of drums, rather than the rest's rather drab quiet guitar pop. Also the single "Over My Shoulder" is a very Death Cab For Cutie-ish calm affair that, though merely fluff, is alright for a listen. A better choice would have been "An Ordinary Girl", being slightly jazz influenced, you can imagine this being played in a smoky club in New York, or in a club in the band's home city Manchester. "Strange Without You" follows on this note, still jazzy guitar pop; it's more fun and proves the band could have great potential for growth if they keep heading in this direction.
"Sand And Glue" is slightly more "rock" in the sense it has a heavier bass line, it's not all that good, but it's a track that breaks up the album from sounding all the same. The rest of the tracks, as I said before, are dull and filler, they would induce sleep to even the most hyperactive of children. This band have talent, and potential, with a dash of originality that they seem to show a glimmer of on some songs such as "An Ordinary Girl" they could out do themselves.