Album: The View Cheeky for a Reason (Cooking Vinyl)

Attempting to arrest their steady career decline, on Cheeky for a Reason, The View have gone for what singer Kyle Falconer describes as "Fleetwood Mac's Rumours done by The Clash", a claim alas only intermittently borne out.

The closest they come is "The Clock", whose melody has a distinctly F. Mac tinge, but its attempt to impart emotions to inanimate objects is underwhelming. Elsewhere, a series of routine punky-pop exercises is occasionally salvaged by their spirit and winning way with melody, as on "Hold On Now". The album's never better, however, than the opener "How Long", a sleek rocker driven by rolling-thunder drums, in which Kyle Falconer's rapscallion vocal and the clangour of his and Pete Reilly's galloping guitars combine to sparky effect.

Download: How Long; The Clock