Rae & Christian – Mercury Rising

Rae & Christian return after more than a decade with an album inspired by 70s British folk, but the results, recorded and played immaculately, border on nauseatingly twee. The terminally obvious songwriting of guest vocalists like Mark Foster and Ed Harcourt is a terrible match for Rae & Christian's funk-infused, hip-hop-inspired production.

There are flashes of the old magic – Check The Technique, with Jazzy Jeff, and A2B with Masta Ace and others, nod to Northern Sulphuric Soul's blend of soul, funk and classic hip-hop breaks, but are too familiar to truly inspire. Singer Diagrams does a fair impression of Damon Albarn on the Gorillaz-esque 1975, but the dire lyrics and over-reliance on strings throughout the album feels lazy, bourgeois and out of touch. At times aping Cinematic Orchestra (the title track), at others straying dangerously close to dismal X Factor territory (Still Life Freefall, the execrable Harcourt track), this is a disappointing miss. [Bram E. Gieben]