Noah And The Whale

Fun, fun, fun, etc. And did we say twee?

Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down

Is it possible to review Twickenham-anti-folkies Noah And The Whale and NOT use the word 'twee'? Er, apparently not.

Their lyrics may be surprisingly sharp but you'll have to wade through the chirpiest of arrangements to realise it.

And whether you can be arsed to get past Charlie Fink's Lloyd Grossman-esque delivery and their reliance on school orchestra like percussion (so THAT's where all the wood blocks went) is another question entirely.

They certainly have a way with a hook, as demonstrated – approximately every 10 minutes on the radio, it seems – by 'surprise' hit Five Years Time and, at their best, they bring to mind They Might Be Giants or, perhaps more accurately, Belle & Sebastian on Prozac.

But there is something deeply, deeply annoying about an album's worth of this stuff, that's going to take more than a few decent, poignant couplets to rectify.

Live they're supposed to be brilliant and there's enough here to suggest there's better to come but Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down (and nothing pretentious about that title, is there?) is a deeply flawed debut.

Sixth forms everywhere will lap it up.

They say: 'Charlie Fink has a promising future as every Jack Johnson fans' eighth-favourite singer and as a supreme irritant to the rest of us.' - The Independent

We say: Some good, some bad. Charlie doesn't get our goat as much as other reviewers but let's just say we understand where they're coming from.

Best Track: Hold My Hand As I'm Lowered, the title track.

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