2025 has got a lot to live up to. Last year was such a strong year for albums, for both debuts and returners, and this January, with the fantastic Franz Ferdinand album, which sees them rolling back the years to their imperial phase, and the likes of DITZ and Brooke Combe still to come before February rears its head, is already off to a flyer.
Alas, the debut offering from Manchester’s Delights will not be joining this illustrious pantheon. They have been honing their sound for the last few years, releasing a multitude of singles, some of which have made their way onto this and having seen the band live last year, the newer material they were playing live seemed a bit weirder, and somewhat more interesting than they had been previous, so I was intrigued to hear which direction they had taken with regards to long-playing record number one.
It becomes pretty obvious from the start, ‘Silk Skin‘ doesn’t strike as an obvious opener, being a mid-tempo melodic number rather than a welcome statement of intent, but things soon perk up on the form of the rousing ‘Say What’s On Your Mind‘. They head into dancier mode with the aforementioned Franz Ferdinand-aping ‘Two Times Over’, with its uplifting “Shall we do it all again tomorrow, Cause I know you wanna say yes!” chorus, but then things take a turn and the longer it goes on, the longer of a mid-tempo melodic rut they find themselves stuck in.
One then just waits for the song to prick up the ears, the one that’ll kick-start the record, where the penny will drop, but this eureka moment never quite arrives, as it starts to become music that is just there rather than grabbing the attention, it’s fair to say it could even have benefitted from losing a couple of the tracks down the middle as it starts to feel overlong, so songs tend to slide past without much notice being taken of them. ‘The Way Things Used To Be‘ is a piano-led Keane-esque ballad, and it’s their Hopes And Fears that this starts to resemble, perfectly serviceable, but you wouldn’t rush to play it over and over.
‘And It Goes’ adds some (temporary) steel to proceedings before there’s quite the twist in the form of the instrumental ‘Hotel Lobby’ which elevator music’s its way into its companion piece ‘Hotel Bar’, but even this is quite tame.The closing track Adore Her is the undoubted highlight of the later tracks, having the comfortably emotional feel that is missing from the rest of the record.
They describe their record as having ‘vibrant nods to funk, soul, disco, psychedelia, classic rock, and stadium-sized indie-pop.’, but this doesn’t really come across, it feels like there’s not been many musical risks taken as there perhaps should have been. They say that you only get to make your debut album once however this is too safe a selection perfectly fine, but not much here to get the heart racing.
