Sky Larkin - Kaleide

Sky Larkin’s first album is perhaps best summed up by the opening line of its follow-up: “I know there’s potential”. Said first album – last year’s The Golden Spike – offered enough proof of this Leeds-based three-piece’s knack for crafting fun, albeit sometimes raw, indie nuggets to leave us wanting more. The question was whether they could build on this boisterous debut or, like so many similar acts, fail to match its promising standard.

Album opener (and lead single) 'Still Windmills' kicks Kaleide off on a wave of sharp guitars, loud drums, ace bass and, of course, lead singer Katie Harkin’s impassioned vocals. When the track slows down for a moment, with Harkin asking “Why wait?” before the song comes crashing back in, you know you’re in for a treat. After this, the album’s title track continues to work up a sweat, before the tempo drops on the equally impressive ‘Tiny Heist’; an impressive hat-trick that could open any ‘difficult’ second album, and the initial signs are that the doubters will have to eat their words.

So impressive is this opening, however, that much of what follows struggles to keep up. In fact, the likes of ‘Coffee Drinker’, ‘Guitar and Antarctica’ and ‘Anjelica Houston’, though all reliably solid offerings, actually end up paling in comparison. When you start so strongly, it can sometimes overshadow the rest of an album, and unfortunately this is Kaleide’s downfall. Luckily, though, there are more good moments than bad to make sure Sky Larkin have consolidated their position as one of the brightest young lights in the UK indie firmament.

Other talking points include ‘Spooktacular’: much heavier than anything the trio have ever delivered in the past, it kicks like a mule, the music and vocals merging towards a hypnotic climax as Harkin (fittingly) coos “Hypnotise”. ‘Year Dot’ is less direct, its handclaps taking their time to reveal their charms before the song explodes into a screamed mass chorus of “One pile of bones / So they know we were friends”. The real standout, however, comes in the shape of the gently melodic ‘ATM’; arguably the most seductive number the band have ever written, if you aren’t already in love with Harkin’s voice before hearing this song, you will be after she ponders “whether a selfish heart is a truthful muscle – or not?”.

All told, Kaleide comes agonisingly close to being a real gem. At times it’s perfect; it shouts in all the right places, whispers when it should, and yet somehow never manages to grab your attention for more than three or four minutes at a time. Regardless, Sky Larkin have still produced a great album – it’s just a shame it’s not as great as you feel it could have been.