Jackinabox
Frayed by the ocean-hopping promotional commitments required to stay apace of their accruing popularity, South London's Mercury Music Prize-nominated urban folk-pop duo Turin Brakes took stock and hunkered down in their Brixton studio bolt hole to record their third albumJackInABox. Wagons duly circled, one might have anticipated a portfolio of dry, woebegone claustrophobia. However, whatJackInABoxactually tenders is the elixir of easy living, the lure of the open road and an emancipating two-fingered gesticulation in the prevailing direction of the sick city rat race. From the breezy, footloose opener "They Can't Buy The Sun" - imagine if The Eagles had listened to Loaded by The Velvet Underground - to the supple funky country acoustics of "Asleep With The Fireflies",JackInABox"is all open fields, the heavens above and sunsets in rear view mirrors. "Oh no, my world is on fire, someone fetch some water cos I think I’m going to burn" sings Olly Knights on the feverish title track, a magnetic aggregate of Pentangle's jazz-folk merry-go-round and The Notorious Byrd Brothers. "Forever" is mind balm for seekers of mellow, come-down reverie but - notwithstanding one or two ponderous pregnant pauses -JackInABoxfinds Turin Brakes with a reinvigorated spring in their step.--Kevin Maidment