The Rain Band
Knee Deep Down

Sounding like nothing more than mid-period Mansun duelling with latter-day New Order, Manchester’s answer to every other Mancunian act ever, The Rain Band, prove that it’s not what raincoat postures you know, it’s how you use them.

Sadly, the swaggering ones don’t really seem to have a grasp on the whole mac culture – or at least not enough to escape from the shackles of their oh-so-gloomy influences – and it ends up sounding all a bit well, nonchalant. Not a bad tune per se, but thanks to a lack of euphoric magic, it remains anchored to the cold, damp floors on which this song would appear to have been conceived.