Veils The Runaway Found

Already 2004 has shown signs that this is a good time to be in the indie camp and commercial, with both Franz Ferdinand and Snow Patrol picking up top 10 hits. There are Top of The Pops appearances for the taking that were once the exclusive right of naff pop and R&B tack. And the Veils have got the image bit right: The picture in front of me shows four very pale young men dressed in black, one looking the spit of Matt Dillon in Drugstore Cowboy. Being poster boys for the new generation is a distinct possibility, and the choice of Bernard Butler - no doubt feeling on a roll following his successful work with the Libertines - to produce a handful of tracks will do their chances no harm.

It's one of these Butler-produced songs, recent single The Wild Son, that opens the album and pretty much sets the tone for the next 40 minutes. With acoustic and electric lead guitars throughout, pleasant enough string arrangements, and frontman Finn Andrews sounding like him out of Starsailor, it's a startlingly average song.

The Veils have been described as having a 'dark, sweeping sound', a description which is only half true. While Guiding Light does indeed have a big sound, there's nothing particular bleak about it or anything else to be found here. And that's no bad thing in itself; the Veils will probably fit the profile perfectly for those who have gone past the point of buying albums obsessively and instead pick up one every month or so. While numbers like The Tide That Left And Never Came Back will doubtless sound great in the car on the way to the office, anyone looking for the experimentation of their recent touring partners British Sea Power and the Cooper Temple Clause will only be disappointed.

But, but, but: Then there's The Leavers Dance, a haunting affair which shows that Andrews might have the chops to make a truly innovative album. It's guitar chimes a memorable melody underpinned by a bassline which is almost reminiscent of Joy Division in parts. An album of similar material would make for interesting listening.

As it stands though, The Runaway Found is to be filed alongside Coldplay, Starsailor and Snow Patrol. If enough fans of those bands get to hear the Veils, they might just wind up huge and continue making albums like this. Maybe I'd rather they didn't and tried instead to go off on new tangents. The people may well decide.