Seemingly unfashionable for wearing glasses, Craig and Charlie Reid’s total withdrawal from the music industry in the late ’90s, to look after their dying father and numerous children, suggests bullshitless values worth more than hipness.
Collins emphasises their raw, unembarrassed emotion, allowing speaker-shredding vocals on punk-folk-soul anthems to wounded people like “Should Have Been Loved”. Southern soul, country, even Merseybeat also enter the mix, reminiscent of mid-period Elvis Costello.
Only a shortage of really top-notch songs lets them down this time around.
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