No Joy – More Faithful

It won't change your life. It might not even change your day, but album number three from Jasamine White-Gluz and Laura Lloyd makes good on their original fizz-bomb fuzz-pop manifesto. This time around, the approach is more measured and the overdrive pedal gets the odd breather. But this is no sell-out, and No Joy still deserve more credit than the usual lazy 'nu gaze' plaudits. At its best, as on the rampant I Am An Eye Machine, More Faithful is an inch away from essential: a few more hooks would make all the difference.

A sneaking suspicion remains that, despite their way with both a tune (the beautiful, hushed Everything New – a dead ringer for early Veruca Salt) and a ruckus (the MBV-referencing Hollywood Teeth), they don’t truly, fully believe in themselves. More Faithful makes the case for sticking around but their best, you suspect, is yet to come.