Album: McAlmont & Butler

Bring It Back, Chrysalis

It is nearly seven years since David McAlmont and Bernard Butler released their debut album, The Sound of McAlmont & Butler, its chances scuppered by the fact that their liaison had already drawn to a reportedly hostile conclusion some weeks earlier. It was, in any case, a half-hearted affair, a collection of tracks vainly seeking some satisfying rapprochement between McAlmont's stratospheric glam-soul vocals and Butler's all-purpose axe-hero stylings, but all too often tumbling between the two stools. Few, in the immediate aftermath of the débâcle, expected the pair ever to reconcile; but, having since drawn blanks in their solo careers, they're back together, older and more mature about the possibilities and limitations of their working relationship.

It can't have been easy getting back together again, but there was enough residual appreciation of each other's abilities to persuade them to forget the past. The opening track, "Theme from McAlmont & Butler", could be an account of their original expectations, their respective talents summarised in lines such as: "He sings like a bird or an angel or something/ He sold his soul to get those pipes", and: "He's got a way with that guitar; he's a Stratocaster kinda guy/ He plays his Copycat inside and turns his Marshall up to grind."

Those talents are so much more convincingly wielded here, however, that Bring It Back could be by a different band. Though adhering to much the same pop-soul parameters as its predecessor, there's an ease and familiarity about the album that's winning: where their earlier work was all about potential, this is a confident realisation of that potential. The euphoric epic "Falling" builds its Spector-esque Wall of Sound on the drum intro to "Get off My Cloud", while "Can We Make It" has the authentic cast of a Northern Soul rarity, McAlmont's voice soaring high and free over the slick blend of stomp and strings, and Butler's whiplash guitar fills indicative of the reined-in, condensed style he employs throughout the album. "Who cares what books we read, what boots we wear?/ All that matters is that we are there," sings McAlmont, an attitude that, like the reconciliation theme of "Bring It Back" itself, is doubtless informed to some extent by their chequered past.

Most intriguing of all, however, is "Blue", a restrained rumination on depression set to limpid acoustic guitar, whose thoughtful manner – not to mention its title – bears the impression of Joni Mitchell, an influence that might be profitably absorbed by any number of McAlmont & Butler's indie-pop peers. Or anyone else, for that matter.