Wintersleep – The Great Detachment

Now a decade and a half into their career, the typically dependable Canadian rockers return with their first LP since 2012's Hello Hum. Produced by Tony Doogan (who has worked with two of Scotland’s grandest exports, in Belle & Sebastian and Mogwai), the 11-track record takes a sweeping survey of the five-piece’s usual style of Americana, from the bold, rumbling rock of lead single Amerika and the warbling guitars of Sante Fe, through to the dirge-like Shadowless.

It’s a sturdy enough half hour of expansive and often emotive alt-rock, but despite the group's clear staying power (and figuring in a cameo from Rush legend Geddy Lee on Territory), the overall mood is more perfunctory than profound.

There’s nothing essentially off here – if you’re after a solid diet of meat and potatoes indie rock. What may leave other listeners aggrieved is Wintersleep’s reluctance, especially by album number six, to venture beyond their own established boundaries a little more.