Love Never Fails

This well kept British secret have been beavering away for seventeen years, releasing six acclaimed cult albums to date.

Johnny Brown’s Band of Holy Joy specialise in a dizzy cocktail of melancholic jazz and orchestral pop similar to the blend practiced by Tindersticks and Belle & Sebastian. Throw in the wildness of Waits, the suave swagger of Scott Walker and the poptastic pout of Pulp and you’re getting there.

Love Never Fails is peppered with some fine uplifting moments - the invocation to ‘Capture My Soul’, the sad and sweet ‘Grace Darlings’ and the woozy urban spoken word waltz ‘The Laughter on Ganton Street’, which gives Marc Almond a good run for his rum in the backstreet balladeering stakes.

Sadly, this engaging collection suffers in being annoyingly uneven. By the time one gets to the closing salvo, ‘And Then the Real Thing Come Along’, the bombastic arrangements grate severely and you’re left yearning for a far simpler and visceral pop thrill. Interesting, but ultimately just a little bit irritating.