Album Review

Delays – Unsung

• 28th Jun 2010

With their new album, ‘Star Tiger, Star Ariel’, Delays say they’re “determined to strip their sound back”. Unfortunately, they might have taken this process a bit too far with ‘Unsung’.

Minimalism’s a tricky thing. If you’re giving your listener as little as possible, you’ve got to replace all the things you’re leaving out with extra-witty cleverness, extra-catchy melody, extra-pretty harmony or an extra-special sound. Sparsely conveyed emotions should be uber-heartfelt. Experimentation must be truly unique. Whatever you leave in needs to be really very special. Otherwise we get nothing.

And ‘Unsung’ really doesn’t deliver on any of the above. We get simplicity, but not in a good way. Imagine the sound version of a Rothko painting without his glorious sense of colour. This single is just a bit thumpy, not overly original, rather pedestrian and more than a little bit lacking.