Here we go. Something that fails to arrive in a fanfare of hype and superlatives but which still manages to yield a very small modicum of joy. It may fail to bang down the door to your heart and make a beeline for all you most treasure but The Muckraker’s gentle and inconsequential brand of country-flavoured pop at least pauses to provide a polite ‘hello’ by way of introduction. True it may be more likely to tap gently before entering, but enter they certainly do.
In the mould of bands like Crowded House and Matchbox 20 whilst simultaneously exposing a rich seam of ‘Daniel’ era Elton John, Louisville, Kentucky’s The Muckrakers strum a dozen or so pleasing ballads on solid debut album, ‘Front Of The Parade’. Sidling in with the sweet jangly euphoria of the lyrical ‘Cigarettes & Magazines’ before jollying things up with the loose-fitting wistfulness of ‘Through My Door’ their closest point of reference in the UK is that ruminative old jelly head, David Gray. Not loose canons, I grant thee, but things that jangle as friskily and as squarely as this seldom surrender tortured, endangered souls like the Dohertys and Cobains.
So there you have it. Songs about people called Sylvia, pain relief, redemption, ceilings, spare change, grey December skies, waking up and leaving when the morning comes. Pleasant is as pleasant does. And this is quite pleasant.