Far be it from me, a person who writes all around his subjects and also runs a blog condemning Bad Cover Versions, to complain about a record review, but something about this review of the new, mainly unwanted album from Britpop Also-Rans™ Cast makes me feel… sad.

If the record was so unworthy of even mentioning the content in the review, why waste your reader’s time writing about it? Who has gained from this transaction?

Sadly, only the author’s sense of self-worth does, whilst the website’s stats receive a (false) boost from rubber-neckers. And this is a situation where we all lose.

What if that 500 words had been used to write anything else? About, I dunno, another new band?

I don’t know for sure, but I get the feeling that KHBR are so named because the participants” initials are KH and BR. That’s fine. It worked for hip-hop behemoths EPMD and RUN-DMC, so why not a slightly effete jangle-dream-pop band too?

Cruising The Royale achieves much of what a lot of very now bands are attempting, but failing to do: to re-kindle the warped, drifting, cloudy sound of late 80’s guitar pop.

That so many have failed is an interesting quirk, but not worth considering now, not when a song as ethereal, undulating and echo-laden as this has dropped in our collective lap.

Cruising the Royale hits a number of nails squarely on their heads: lyrics happy to expose themselves, guitar noises picked for lusciousness over fashion, and the now-quaint feeling of honesty pervades.

The musical equivalent of comfort food. Keep spooning it in.

MORE: khbr.bandcamp.com