Release Date: Jul 5, 2004
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Record label: Polydor
Music Critic Score
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It's a confused lineage the Open lay claim to on their debut: on one hand, stretching back through Radiohead (when they wrote proper tunes), the Verve, the Waterboys and pre-irony U2; on the other, wanting to be seen as breathing a more rarefied air alongside the Blue Nile, David Sylvian and Talk Talk. But you'll search in vain for echoes of elegiac otherness in these comparatively straightforward, rockist songs. They have either a moody, inclusive non-specificity or a prosaic blandness, depending on your mood.