Album Review: The Courteeners - Anna

The late Baroness Thatcher's legacy in the industrious north of England made for some unhappy campers. Who could be otherwise, with constant strikes, far-too numerous power outages and an unbalanced tax that had fat cats and low-income workers alike paying an equal high rate? Good news for us though; left in the Iron Lady's wake was a sombre landscape simply begging to give way to a down-on-your-luck musical playground. Manchester spawned bands with buzzing tunes and more often than not a drawling, omnipresent singer the likes of the Courteeners' Liam Fray. The four-piece hit a career high early with 2008's St Jude and Falcon a couple of years later. Anna fares not quite as well to begin with, but blossoms at album's end; a pleasant but cohesively flawed listen.

Much of the album's first half consists entirely of spangly guitars with neat, clipped chords and pretty but repetitive key motifs, and there's nary a stylistic bent or dynamic shift in sight, making it so lightweight it threatens to all but float away. Are You In Love With A Notion? kicks things off in reasonable swaggering shape but Fray's vocal is glossed with high-strung synth lacquer. Thankfully Lose Control hooks into something a bit darker, chugging synths channelling an almost Tears For Fears '80s alt-pop vibe. But the album's soft opener seems to be a recurring template for Push Yourself and Welcome To The Rave.

It's in the dying moments that Anna revives, with the avant-garde Marquee's shift to just Fray and bending strings, while Here Come The Young Men is easily the highlight, with its nod to the classic Madchester straightlaced vocal, buzzing guitars and an unrelenting, fun beat.