Earlimart - Hymn and Her

Returning with their sixth album, Earlimart continue to craft Death Cab-lite songs heavy on oh-so-sincere soporific sensitivity but light on anything with the spark necessary to rise from Hymn and Her's sludgy swamp of cloying niceness. The breathy emoting of tracks such as Time For Yourself would've been right at home soundtracking a particularly turbulent time in Seth and Summer's relationship were The O.C. still running, probably over a slow-dissolve montage of Ryan and co. staring and, like, thinking about stuff. In fact, a quick interweb consultation reveals their music did indeed grace an early episode, as well as a no-doubt teary and meaningful instalment of House. However, despite its excessive obviousness, the album contains moments of genuine beauty - the horns that bolster Face Down In The Right Town's wistful nostalgia, or the slow-build marching drums that bubble up in Great Heron Gates, for instance - which mercifully rescue this from mediocrity. [Chris Buckle]