Will Varley, Spirit of Minnie - album review

And the production values he received to tackle this first record with a full backing band is equally decent. Cameron McVey has worked with Massive Attack, Portishead and Neneh Cherry before. Yet even his genius can't lift this record above the realms of...alright.

There are some very good moments here, the issue is that between these a lot of tracks fail to register an interest. If your concentration starts to wander three or four tracks into a nine-song record then you know that things aren't all peachy.

To focus on the positives - three tracks in particular do very well.

The heartbroken storytelling of Breaking The Bread hits the mark with its soft musical tones and pained strings behind Will's vocals.

The title track, too, sucks you in with its slowly building sound that opens up into a harsh chorus that allows Will's grainier vocals to hold court.

There is also The Postman, with its Radiohead-like meddled approach to a robotic sphere of guitars and percussion. Again, it builds to a Coldplay-like crescendo that screeches and screams slightly before easing off into a pleasantly soft finale.

Most of what's in between these, though, can largely pass you by.

Closing track Insect takes a long time to take you to where it wishes to crawl, its heartbeat percussion being the only real glue that keeps the mess of sounds moving in a vaguely logical direction.

We also have a few middle of the road tracks like Seven Days and Let It Slide. They do nothing offending with their product, but at the same time not a lot decent happens either. The latter in particular just has a grating, growing vocal ending it could do without.

It just goes to show that production value alone doesn't necessarily mean a great offering. The backing music may get more opportunity to shine on a live stage, but based on what we listen to here it all feels a tad bland.

Rating: 5/10

Will Varley plays at Birmingham's O2 Institute 3 on Tuesday.