UNKLE – Where Did the Night Fall

Time was when James Lavelle’s credit was so healthy he could lure in the aristocracy of leftfield musical talent to lend a hand with his UNKLE project: Ian Brown, Thom Yorke, Mike D and Brian Eno have all had a go in the past.

It made one wonder what an UNKLE album would sound like without a stellar cast of contributors, and now we might have the answer in this collection of 14 tracks that contains few surprises beneath the polished production. There are plenty of extras involved, but they’re conspicuously low-key (Mark Lanegan perhaps excepted).

So the Bjork-like yelps of Sleepy Sun punctuate the Royksopp expanses of Follow Me Down; Clayhill’s Gavin Clark croons harmlessly on Falling Stars; South frontman Joel Cadbury struggles to make himself heard on the uneasy Ever Rest. Lanegan’s charismatic growl affects on Another Night Out, but as the last track it comes too late. It’s expansive and slick, but altogether UNKLE’s fifth album comes across as unfocused and largely unremarkable.