Dog Is Dead – All Our Favourite Stories

Nottingham’s Dog is Dead have been all over this summer’s festival calendar, and with good reason. Debut LPAll Our Favourite Stories sounds ambitious and expensive, its robust indie-rock built not for poky basements but wide open spaces, indicating an act already operating on a somewhat grander scale than most indie debutants. It’s little wonder the majors came knocking, with the album’s three singles to date – moody torch-song Two Devils; Hands Down, which fuses aspects of Arcade Fire with The Ronettes; and the lounge-scented swing of Glockenspiel Song – demonstrating both commercial appeal and a confidently forthright song-writing bent.

Unfortunately, they already seem to have lost some steam, with nothing else quite living up the same standard. Yet with a few coming close (like the closing Killers-ish electro-ballad Any Movement), and residual promise in even the dullest stretches, it’s easy to envisage them leaping up line-ups come next year’s festival season. [Chris Buckle]