Winter

The land of alternative rock is a strange one. Many bands, washed up on its shores, find themselves aimlessly roaming the savanna of vague pigeonholes: not heavy enough to be regular rock, not whiny enough to be indie (and too proud to even possibly be pop).

Of such musical nomads, Nozzle are one. Spawned in 1995 from the pickings of Pressgang and New Model Army, their debut album Winter, is a samey, boring, vaguely engaging affair, loosely flung upon a meat and two veg standard rock outfit, with the odd piano track on the ballads.

Needless to say, the yawns came quick and fast. By the time the supposed ‘hilights’ came around in the form of ‘Nothing Will Change’ (as promised by the press release) the struggle to stay mentally alert had almost gotten the better of me.

It’s not that this is necessarily a bad album, or that Nozzle are necessarily a bad band; they’re just nothing special, and, quite frankly, we’ve heard it all before.