Formed last year by former members of Bridge, Narco and Amberstate, The Halcyons have pedigree but you can question their deportment, particularly when it comes to holding a cohesive tune together. The band forever seem to be pulled in opposing directions – between the desire to inhabit a more spectral or harder-edged place, and a seemingly irresistible tendency to lurch back into a safer middle ground when things sound like they might get a bit strange.
Which is frustrating given they sound like they could create something genuinely cool, like the squiggling, almost acid house electro bubble of `Creatures’, with singer Emma De Lacey coming on all Siouxsie Sioux for a glorious few seconds before everything around her seems to collapse in nervous defeat and heads off to indulge in soft-rock histrionics. Similarly `Batman’, which shows Emma’s voice at its best – silky, smoky and sultry by turns, the song akin to Sleeper giving `Louise Louie’ a playful organ-led makeover, but tends to give into more saccharine tendencies, struggling to hit high notes that never needed hitting in the first place.
By third and final track `Answers’ Halcyons seem to have given into their cravings completely, the song bearing a worrying similarity to Celine Dion’s `All By Myself’, sharp and grating when a softer touch is called for.
A shame then, but not a write-off by any stretch. Halcyons maybe just need to decide which direction they want to head in – stick to the safe middle ground, or veer into the road less travelled. With any luck they’ll opt for the latter.