Loner - Western Sci-Fi

With a title like Western Sci-Fi, you may have hoped that Loner’s sophomore longplayer would bear thematic similarities to Yul Brynner’s classic Westworld, where an android gunslinger in a hedonistic theme park malfunctions and busts some shells at bemused customers. Alas, this is a far less exciting proposition. The hearty piano pop of Show A Little Love provides a welcome respite from the choleric tint that Loner’s vocals lend to much of the album. The record's see-sawing mood owes as much to poor sequencing as it does to the content; the delicate melody of Already Numb is barely digested before the album shifts into a contextually bizarre Pet Shop Boys moment in Without You. While Loner’s adventurousness is admirable, the album’s weaknesses bring to mind Brinner’s charred maw at Westworld’s denouement; the effort is there, but a lack of heart fatally exposes its shortcomings. [Ray Philp]