The New Acoustic Movement might sound like an unlikely pop craze, but it's one that's been the making of south London duo Turin Brakes. Widely hailed as the pick of a crop of earnest new guitar strummers, they became stars in a suitably low-key way - their debut album selling over 200,000 copies without ever rising above number 27 in the charts. The follow-up finds them developing a much more muscular sound, presumably hoping to snare an even larger audience in the process. The problem is, it doesn't really suit them. Recorded in LA with the aid of Beck producer Tony Hoffer, Ether Song feels like a showcase for studio wizardry, blending Ollie Knights's maudlin vocals into a background of shimmering electronica. It's all perfectly pleasant - but unfortunately the songs tend to err on the side of blandness, with lyrics that are alternatively cryptic and cliched. Not a bad album by any means - but given the level of hype, a bit of a disappointment all the same.
