Album Review: Sons & Daughters - Mirror Mirror

It’s been more than three years since Glaswegian quartet Sons & Daughters released their third album, the Bernard Butler-produced This Gift. That was a broadly well-received record, largely because it was also an exciting one, its twelve tracks brimming with passionate guitar duelling and powerful male/female vocal interplay. It was an unapologetically bigger-sounding record than 2005’s The Repulsion Box, as well as a huge leap forward in the songwriting stakes from the band's '03 debut, Love The Cup. What’s more, it was all delivered at an unrelenting, breakneck speed.
 
It comes as something of a surprise, then, to witness the slow, tapping build-up to 'Silver Spell', the first track on this overdue fourth full-length. A low, swooping synth line slides its way in and out of the mix as Adele Bethel and Scott Paterson’s vaguely sinister vocals intertwine on what adds up to an altogether haunting opening number. Right from the off, this doesn’t sound or feel like the Sons & Daughters we thought we knew.
 
It's a change that continues into song two, 'The Model' - and, indeed, permeates the album as a whole. Gone, for the most part, are the roaring guitars that dominated previous outings; instead, S&D here seek to channel a more atmospheric, occasionally Joy Division-esque sound that relies heavily on vocals which sadly never quite hit the mark.
 
Much of Mirror Mirror feels like it is stuck in some sort of stylistic halfway house: 'Breaking Fun' shows that , when they return to rasping guitars and raw vocals, Sons & Daughters have a catchy quality that's hard to keep down; unfortunately too many of the LP's other nine tracks fall victim to the band adding all manner of effects and atmospheric trickery that they simply do not need. As a result, the short, sharp, exciting tunes of old have been replaced by forgettably dreary affairs, the majority of which feel like they go on for a minute or so too long (‘Don’t Look Now’ being a case in point).
 
While many of their indie contemporaries remain content to tread stagnant water, Sons & Daughters must be commended for at least having the courage to try something different. It's just a shame this new direction is so at odds with the band's obvious strengths, lacking as it does much of the vibrancy that made their previous outings so enjoyable. Here's hoping that, rather than signalling the start of a downward slide, Mirror Mirror proves to be either an uncharacteristic hiccup or, perhaps more interestingly, a transitional chapter that leads to better things.