★★☆☆☆
London quartet Yuck, who sit somewhere between tame indie rock and half-hearted shoe-gaze, return with a bland third album. On opener ‘Hold Me Closer’, frontman Max Bloom whines over fuzzed-up guitar on a track that is catchy enough, and melodic enough, but that’s about it. The roundabout repetition of one decent riff is lacklustre and quickly proves the drab nature of what is to come.
‘Like a Moth’ initially feels like a welcome change as the tempo slows and the band settle into a comfortable groove. But this comfort is not enough (we want cutting-edge, after all), and, in any case, the game is too soon given away. “Like a moth I see you / Burning like a fl ame / When I try to approach you / I get burnt away” sings Bloom. These lyrics, riddled with clichés and messy syllable-ï¬llers, illustrate the sentiment of these songs – the sound is hardly offensive; but it’s the predictability that is more than irritating.
‘Swirling’ does, in fact, have a swirly, rippling sound, though hardly enough to be reminiscent of shoe-gazers My Bloody Valentine to whom Yuck have been compared. ‘Only Silence’ begins with a radio-play-like effect which serves only to make the main bulk of the song seem slightly more interesting when it eventually appears. But these vague experimentations lack conviction and do not mask the obviousness that is Stranger Things’ only characteristic strong enough to be remembered.
