Rarely is it that one listens to an album all the way through and at the end of it all is unable to remember a single thing about it.

That is the unfortunate plight of New Zealand’s latest band hoping to achieve a UK audience. So going back several times and giving a more concentrated listen to these 17 tracks was necessary – but still, nothing was even vaguely arresting.

This might be partly due to the fact that the Shocking Pinks attempt half-a-dozen genres on this record, from the pseudo nu-rave of ‘Smokescreen’ to the lifeless attempt to recreate the melancholy atmosphere of Elliott Smith’s early albums with ‘Girl On The Northern Line’.

Elsewhere they attempt the odd lo-fi number and even dance, but to attempt so many moods on one record, none of them sounding particularly sincere, makes for a draining listen. A lukewarm, half drunk, weak cup of tea of an album.

Barnaby Smith