Kill the Captains – Sounds Mean

Pleasingly difficult to pin down, Kill the Captains’ second album Sounds Mean skips around pigeonholes dextrously and with a discernible sense of humour. With darting melodies, wonky guitar lines and vocalist Leon Carter’s upfront croon, the Sheffield quartet veer from propulsive dance-punk (Disco Nazi) to chugging, rough-edged indie-rock (The Trial) to straight-up hushed balladry (The Taking Of) – each appealing in its own way, and together giving a good account of the band’s diverse interests.

Admittedly, once you grab hold of the slippery so-and-so and give it a proper gander, some of the introductory thrills subside somewhat, as a handful of tracks reveal their plodding side while occasionally clumsy lyrics start to grate on repeat exposure (in particular, Share the Load’s geopolitical sloganeering – a neat idea, awkwardly executed). Better to focus on the tracks of more unequivocal merit, with opener Umami proving especially enjoyable thanks to its quirk-filled midpoint breakdown. [Chris Buckle]