North Atlantic Oscillation - Grappling Hooks

As a title, Grappling Hooks is highly ironic given that North Atlantic Oscillation’s debut album is sorely lacking a stable influence to give it some grounding. Make no mistake, this is an ambitious album as the Edinburgh trio throw every trick in their arsenal at a mighty big canvas. Inevitably some of it sticks, particularly when NAO play it reasonably straight on the spaced-out Cell Count and Drawing Maps From Memory. Most of the time though, the roll call of influences on any one song is dizzying and the end results are often wholly derivative. Some Blue Hive couldn’t be more Sophtware Slump-era Grandaddy if its life depended on it, whilst the wholesale theft of Sigur Rós on Ritual’s opening half is as unimaginative as it is blatant. North Atlantic Oscillation have the potential to make a great album for sure, but they need to make their Pablo Honey before they attempt OK Computer. [Darren Carle]