They obviously get on well with their old colleagues and employers, as the album is littered with appearances from the likes of Terry Callier, Earl Zinger (also formerly of Galliano) and Lorna Brown (who has, in the past, sung with — yep, you guessed it, Terry Callier). Lucy Jules’ vocals add a soulful weight to the album’s eponymous opener ‘Can’t Talk’.

As on many tracks on the album, the influences that make up Can’t Talk aren’t hard to find; the delicate guitar that litters so much of Callier’s recent work, and strings and samples that suggest the band may well have listened to Massive Attack and Rae & Christian at some point in the last few years. It’s a pretty impressive opener, but also one that suggests that the album is unlikely to provide any life-changing moments.

What it does provide, and in spades, is length: like many sessions musicians, these guys like a good jam. The first three tracks come in at over 17 minutes, and only one song is less than four minutes. While none of the songs are bad, one can’t help feeling that they might have been even better if the band had someone else calling the shots.

Still, for all that while some of them tend to drag on a bit, there’s no denying the talent that put these songs together. ‘Walk Away’, which features Terry Callier, sounds, well exactly like a Terry Callier song actually. But then gentle guitars, soft drumming and a beautiful melody are much better accompaniments for Callier’s vocals than the terrible dirge that Massive Attack put together for him recently. And the strange blend of Brazilian sounds & jarring beats on ‘The Ballad Of Johnny One-Stop’ are the perfect counterpart to Zinger’s stream of consciousness style ramblings.

Overall then Can’t Talk is a fine showcase for the talents of the band’s members, as well as those of their esteemed contributors. But while it’s full of pleasant songs that occasionally amount to more than the sum of their parts, in many ways it merely highlights the actual greatness of much of their past work. Hopefully the band will tighten up as they progress down their career road (sorry!)

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