The Rakes - Klang!

The Rakes have ridden a rocky road with the critics. Their debut received almost unanimous praise for its fist-clenching minimalism and playing as tight as the jeans glued to the band members' needle-thin legs. Its lyrics spoke of the life of the average man - his 22 grand job, his awkward silences - and they resonated well. On their difficult sophomore album they thought beyond the hooks, and the press was polarised. But with Klang! The Rakes return to what they do best. Some might call this defeatist, but listening to Alan Donohoe singing “sometimes you can’t smell the shit till you’re in it” on the opener, it sounds like an aggressive return to form. The humour is bleak as ever, with paeans to the woes of outdoor smoking and those miserable, failed sexual desires. Maybe The Rakes haven’t changed, but we didn’t really want them to anyway. Cling tight to their skinny frames. [Gordon Bruce]