Strays Don't Sleep - 'Strays Don't Sleep'

This debut album from Nashville five-piece Strays Don't Sleep is the creative lovechild of 'two of the most intelligent and heralded underground artists in the United States' – Matthew Ryan and Neilson Hubbard. It's a nice enough collection of songs, drawing on every last trick from the melancholy-acoustic textbook, the only trouble is that not one of the nine songs on offer raises the stakes beyond average. At best on For Blue Skies the emotion is evident, but even this suffers from being too long without ever going anywhere, an affliction apparent throughout. So Strays Don't Sleep eh? Well they must know something we don't. [Jon Seller]