Mystery Jets – Curve Of The Earth

★★★

Released January 15th, 2016 on Caroline International Records

The English indie band’s sixth album is a distillation of every hat they’ve tried on over the years.  What this actually means is that Curve Of The Earth is the mushy middle of English neo-pysch indie rock:  a little bit deadpan Pink Floyd, a little bit Bends-era Radiohead, a bit of the Flaming Lips at their least experimental.  The guitar tone is definitely in debt to the first in that list; “Blood Red Balloon” feels a lot like an outtake from Wish You Were Here, while “Telomere” sounds like the moment Britpop turned into arena rock.  A lot of it tends to blur together; there’s no overarching vision at work here, no particular style that you can point to and say “This is what being Mystery Jets means”.  Curve Of The Earth is a collection of songs, mostly derivative, decent enough without being anything special.  Great for that person who grumps that no one sounds like their parent’s music anymore, something to put on while you’re cleaning for the rest of us.