Call Upon The Author

The Dreaming Spires is the new vehicle for musical brothers Robin and Joe Bennett who have been kicking around for a good few years now. They both previously played in Danny & The Champions of The World and helped to found the Truck and Wood festivals. They’ve worked with Supergrass’ producer, and packaged the album very nicely, so I put it on hoping for great things. And…
Ohhh. I’m so sorry, but this album is dead average. I played it for the first time in my car while having a conversation with a mate, and as background music it works really well – but when you focus on it entirely, it doesn’t stand up to close scrutiny.
The album features a sixties-style sound, with that particularly clean sounding guitar, and perky harmonies. However, as one of their songs clearly states, ‘Not Every Song From The Sixties Is A Classic’: and if these songs had been released then, they would have sunk without a trace. The music is decent, but nothing special. The lyrics are neither clever nor inspired. One brother can sing pretty well, but the other (whichever one is singing on the aforementioned ‘Not Every…’) lacks any vocal power, and neither of them give it enough welly to carry the album along.
I genuinely had no intention of sitting down to slate this album, but unfortunately when you break it down into it’s components, none of them are particularly strong. This album is not awful, but it’s not particularly good either. Pretty forgettable.