FOR a group who seemed to have all the boxes ticked when they emerged with their sun-kissed 2004 debut Faded Seaside Glamour, Delays have spent the years since trying to find their place.
The question of whether they want to be pop or rock is one they’ve never answered, and their fourth album once again finds them in conflict. The identity crisis is frustrating, because when frontman Greg Gilbert’s urban falsetto hits its stride amid the whirling synths of the brilliant Lost Estate, the dreamy wash of Rhapsody and the jabbing strings of Lakes Can Be Lethal, Delays sound like the band they were supposed to be. Then they ruin it by trying to become Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on Shanghai’d and the title track and never regain their composure.
If Delays had shown more faith in their pop roots, Star Tiger Star Ariel could have been so much better, but they seem destined to be an outfit who ‘could have been’.
* Delays will play The Cockpit, Leeds on October 14.
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