Ormondroyd Hit & Hope

For those of you who didn't devote a significant chunk of the early nineties to the painfully addictive Championship Manager series, Ian Ormondroyd was a journeyman footballer, more notable for his gangly 6ft 5in frame than his goalscoring record. Think Peter Crouch without the robotic dancing.

In their own way, Sheffield quintet Ormondroyd stands out from the crowd every bit as much as their namesake. Sheffield has a lot to offer musically, and the past two years have seen a renaissance in the city's music scene, but atmospheric guitar bands of this calibre remain something of a rarity in the Steel City.

I first encountered Ormondroyd around 18 months ago, as a support act to Dungen, describing them as "Sheffield-based shoegazers, reminiscent of early Ride, Spiritualized and Mogwai". Hit & Hope doesn't really deviate too far from this, efficiently covering most of the ground between shoegaze and post-rock, but the difference here is the quality of the execution and the songs themselves. This record sees the band fully realising the rough around the edges promise of that early live set.

Hit & Hope is a consistent record, with no weak tracks to speak of and a handful of genuine highlights. Perfect Designs is a muscular anthem with stadium potential, reminiscent of Doves' best work, whereas Eyes on the Road features the best use of a flanger in recent memory. But the record's most ambitious (and arguably most effective) offering is its glorious finale, The Storm. Six and a half minutes of slow-building dream-pop, featuring clarinet, chiming guitar arpeggios and gorgeous harmonies, it closes the record in some style with its guitar driven crescendo.

If I was forced into making a criticism, it would be that at times the band wears its influences a little too proudly on their sleeves. But if you're being that picky I guess you could probably say the same about any band with aspirations of sonic grandeur plugging into a delay pedal post-My Bloody Valentine. It's worth remembering of course that this is a debut album, and tracks like The Storm do hint that in time the band will find a voice to call its own.

Cult hero though he was, Ian Ormondroyd never excelled at the highest level. If this impressive debut is anything to go by, the band that bears his name has more than a fighting chance of doing just that.