Stapleton - Rest And Be Thankful

Writing this on grey and windy day, it’s not the easiest thing to do to see the appeal of Stapleton. The Scottish quartet return with their fourth album in the form of ‘Rest And Be Thankful’, which naturally seems to evoke images of lazy summer days spent waiting for the next day to arrive. For that reason it’s actually quite a pleasant listen. Album opener ‘From Wood To Ridge’ is a melodic little number that leads smoothly onto the stop start rhythms of ‘Versus The Underground’. It is perhaps here where the problems start. Whereas fellow countrymen Biffy Clyro seemed to have mastered that art and made it work for them, the stop start rhythms only break up a song that should and could work so much better without it.

In all fairness initial reactions to the album are if anything, rather weak. On the first few listens there is little to grab your attention, each song sounds roughly the same as the next, all sub Semisonic-like guitar rhythms, the same beat, the same mould of indie rock that you’ve heard a dozen times before. The track ‘Passing Place’ is typically the best example of this, going by and making us check that the following song isn’t actually the same. It’s a frustrating experience, because it’s clear that the band have woven a good deal of melody within each song, which is then spoilt by their own aversion to breaking out of the same pattern.

The closest thing Stapleton have here that breaks from the norm is the near instrumental beauty that is ‘Absent Friends’ which seems to justify a lot of any previous praise that has been heaped on this band. If someone would turn the volume up on these four, it might well make the world of difference, closing track ‘End And End Well’ brings back fond memories of Idlewild’s ‘The Remote Part’, promising much but ultimately delivering little. The potential is there, waiting to be let out, if only the band would make the step and do something bolder. What’s ultimately left is a rather meek sounding eleven tracks that could be so much more, but sadly aren’t.