Album Review: Circa Waves - Sad Happy

Liverpool foursome Circa Waves unleashed their sunny but riff-laden indie-rock back in 2013, infectious singles shuttling the Scouse lads onto the airwaves. Second album Different Creatures in particular enjoyed many a spin, but those fuzzy, wayward guitars and their general diversity in melody and subject matter seemed to go by the wayside in 2019's tepid follow-up What’s It Like Over There. Now their latest LP Sad Happy paints Circa Waves in an even more lacklustre light, offering very little to pull the band back to where they started.

There is a silver lining in the form of likeable opener Jacqueline and midway crooner Love You More, which both evoke a sense of Circa Waves' past, but the rest simply leans on the same clean and upbeat treatment. Catchy here and there, it’s a neat and tidy listen all up but by the end these 14 squeaky clean tracks just wash over the senses, leaving barely a footprint on the psyche.