Eight years ago, teens sporting unkempt hair and dressed in tight-fitting Topman t-shirts, drainpipes and straw hats were a ubiquitous presence in high streets and festivals across the land. Now however, sightings of such v-necked and cardigan-sporting youths are as rare as rickets. Yet, small gaggles of mis-guided Luke Pritchard worshippers amass periodically at monthly indie nights in dreary clubs situated in the UK's dullest provincial towns to drink themselves back to 2007. Interest waned after second album 'Konk' mad a ham-fisted attempt at profundity and third album 'Junk of the Heart' disappeared without a trace after lead single "Is It Me" failed to crawl past 160 on the UK charts. Comeback single "Down" sees Pritchard taking his cues from Prince and the results of such an unnatural union are predictably cringeworthy and contrived, although the band have at least stopped trying to write songs as poetically clumpy as "Ooh La". Somehow, the band are still receiving festival offers, presumably as the interchangeable mid-afternoon nostalgia band with the accolade of warming up the crowd for the likes of Ed Sheeran. Should worst come to the worst, the lads could always make like Spinal Tap and decamp to Japan, where their last single "Is It Me" reached the heady heights of 49th in the chart.
