Former Belle & Sebastian bassist Stuart David’s long gestating Looper project finally rewards painfully loyal fans with a fourth album after teasing the odd morsel since 2002’s The Snare.
David’s ghostly rasp is a dead ringer for The Auteurs’ Luke Haines, so much so during Waiting For Trains’ wandering vulnerability, you half expect a grim line about a child murder. The off-kilt tilt never gets too unsettling, David’s proud Scottish brogue taking centre stage with a twinkly, bookish tale about ‘Elliot Gray’. Too bright to be dark, too pudgy to be edgy, Offgrid:Offline struggles to make a connection.
