Jonah Matranga - And

It's hard to be too scathing about this solo album from Jonah Matranga - the former frontman of American hardcore outfit Far - who has clearly mellowed with age. After all, he sings warm, simple songs about love and loss against an unobtrusive band accompaniment. And while a positive analogy for this style might be a musical mug of cocoa, a more honest one would be a musical shot of morphene. Matranga sounds like an amalgam of those lightweight bands that crop up on soundtracks to American TV shows – all earnest sentimentality, slide guitar and bland, depersonalized lyrics. Album opener So Long is a case in point: "So long, bye bye, be brave, be strong, till then, so long." Elsewhere Matranga sings a saccharine ode to his daughter on Every Mistake, while Lost, Then Found is perhaps the strongest song, though no less yawn-inducing than the rest of the album. If you like 'nice' music, you'll love Jonah Matranga. [Nick Mitchell]