Superkings
Hit The Ground Running

There's a lot that can be said for half measures when it comes to music. Refusing to go in a particular direction; showing influences yet shying away from improving or even chasing them. It certainly makes for success when you have a bag of catchy anthems and a successful marketing behind you; the middle of the road is still the busiest part of it. But unless you have something special it becomes much more difficult to capture the imagination

This is Manchester four-piece Superkings' problem. They are stuck between two minds: the glossily epic grandeur of fellow Mancs Doves and Elbow that lightly coats A-side 'Hit The Ground Running' and the quirky Nick Cave-isms of vocalist and pianist Dave Wright, which are more evident in B-side 'Wolves and Ravens'.

They end up going neither way, letting any sparks of promise drown in the wet indie-pop result that ends up sitting closer to Athlete than any of the aforementioned references, devoid of real emotion and undeserving of interest.

With Superkings the glass is both half-full and half-empty, but what it contains is so diluted and devoid of any discernable taste that you end up wishing for the glass to just smash on the floor.