Spacey vocals low in the mix and a slowed-heartrate pace mean much of the third album by Jack Tatum’s indie outfit feels like a half-remembered dream. But at least some of the deja vu stems from a feeling that you really have heard these sounds before, albeit in sharper focus. Swilling around in the reverb, allied by a choir of sunshine guitars, is the sound of everything indie ever, from Postcard to post-Britpop. It’s done with the calm competence of a man aware he is breaking no new ground. The only thing likely to quicken your pulse is the moment when you finally work out where you’ve heard that nigglingly familiar melody before. The one thing Wild Nothing doesn’t crib from his indie forebears, though, is neurosis, and his coolness is a bit of a turnoff. “You can’t be sad for everyone”, he sings on Lady Blue, with the sort of cold-blooded rationale that George Osborne would probably be into.
