The Temper Trap - The Temper Trap

When 'Sweet Disposition' came out there was a quiet buzz in the little alternative music world that thought the track would enjoy some success that songs like Bombay Bicycle Club's Always Like This or Empire of the Sun's We are the People were enjoying in the same year. All excellent, visceral and catchy songs, all from too-unknown bands to chart highly. 3 years on, though, and the track's taken a life of its own. Soundtracking (500) Days of Summer, adverts for Diet Coke, Sky Sports, Toyota and Center Parcs, and trailers for Ted and Eat Pray Love, the song is inescapable. This week it re-entered the UK charts at #26. The band are now on Coldplay and Snow Patrol levels of gooey-romantic soundtrack omnipresence.

The problem with that, of course, is that it's just one song. The rest of their debut album Conditions was largely forgettable. None of their other tracks are likely to be covered on The Voice any time soon. So it's down to their follow-up to really prove their credentials - and releasing a self-titled album at such a time cannot be seen as anything other than an assertion of their identity.

It begins promisingly, with a heavily synthesized warble from usual-falsetto Dougy Mandagi on 'Need Your Love', a potential grower that sadly coasts rather than soars, but is a reassuring slice of romance that you'd come to expect. Few would have predicted, then, the following track 'London's Burning'. A rendition of the nursery rhyme would probably surprise less than this interview-sampling lamentation of the 2011 London riots. Watching rather tentatively whilst "children go insane/ dancing on their broken dreams" whilst "payback innit" is repeated throughout, the track reeks of opportunism and doesn't really go anywhere, indulging itself in the same kind of unconvincing world-weariness that was White Lies' 2011 downfall. Sadly, it only gets worse. 'Trembling Hands' might well make the most of a blustery, 'epic' instrumentation but thrusts 13-year old angst-ridden poetry in lieu of lyrics. Using ridiculously archaic and clumsy verbs like 'toil' and 'tucked', 'The Sea is Calling' has a pretty tune spoiled by further inane lyrics.

Similarly pretty is the first glimpse of falsetto on 'Miracle', a minimalist track that, if anything, serves as a nice little breather from all of the surrounding twattery. 'This isn't Happiness' has the most generic indie/electronic crossover instrumental you could imagine, and is followed by three of the most unenjoyable, repetitive, tiresome and frankly fucking awful songs I've ever heard. Consisting of choruses that repeat their titles mindlessly, 'Where Do We Go From Here?', 'Dreams' and 'Never Again' are the nightmarish trio of landfill indie.

Doing his best to channel Thom Yorke, Mandagi's voice on 'Rabbit Hole' is a briefly redeeming feature and the track's so withdrawn and derivative of Radiohead that it's impossible to hate, but further proves their lack of originality. Even their attempts at stadium-epicness (such as in the riffs on 'I'm Gonna Wait') are just weaker spin-offs of far superior U2, Bloc Party or the Cure. 'Leaving Heartbreak Hotel', aside from being a shit song title, does have some nice bass grooves lurking behind the cliché pianos and falsettos, but again is drowned out by choruses and verses you'd expect.

In brief: this is a really shit album. Forget about the band. They are now 'Sweet Disposition', and as long as they continue to rerelease that track we can hopefully forget this monstrously dull effort.

Rating: 1.5/10
Highlights: Miracle, Need Your Love, Rabbit Hole
Avoid: Dreams, Never Again, London's Burning, Where do We Go From Here?, Trembling Hands

Artwork Watch: Not so much blue paint in water as a frightening mutated beanstalk.
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