Will and people: Friends

It’s funny how, having sold tens of millions of records, Sting’s influence on pop music is mostly confined to making the lute an object of fun. Perhaps that is set to change, courtesy of Brighton’s Will and The People, a ska collective whose debt to The Police is so obvious that it must surely be deliberate.
Unlike their heroes alas, Will and The People lack drop-dead perfect hooks – so all you’re left with is surf-rock flummery and lyrics that propound the view that all would be well with mankind if only people were a little bit more considerate. Catchy yet insubstantial, tracks such as ‘Holiday’ and ‘Masterpiece’ float on an eiderdown of gentle riffs and raspy vocals, the lack of urgency pressing down like a dead weight from above. You imagine the sentiments, and the edge-free music in which they are couched, doing well with the Jack Johnston / Newton Faulkner, ‘let’s harmonise around a campfire’ set. Otherwise, though, it’s hard to imagine any fanfares.