stars

The latest single from the Canadian band’s well-regarded In Our Bedroom After The War album, opens with a very Smiths-esque “sweetness, sweetness” lyric.

But the duo are a lot less cynical than Morrissey and it seems this “sweetness” is a genuine address of affection. It highlights their earnest qualities that make them likeable, if not loveable. Midnight Coward has sweet mandolins, a heart-racing sense of urgency and even attempts a cymbal-lead wall of sound at the end, though true to their gentle nature it’s less a wall and more a paper-thin partition. Nice but not sturdy enough to lean on.