Reviewed by Andy Long

The debut album from If Only sees them putting in studio time with established producer and engineer Paul May and he has certainly turned his creative eye to a lot of the tracks here. Delay is used heavily and to good effect and it mixes well with guitarist Sam Hargreaves' style. Musically, the band are able to write well and can construct songs artfully, bringing variation in for the bridge and writing a nice, singable chorus. Their overall sound leans towards the pleasant side of indie and they have a tendency to write slightly eerie sounding hooks as in "Jammin"' or "Shame". Unfortunately, the album is let down by a few weaker songs that would have been better left off the final product, also the overall vocals are certainly a weak factor and tend to distract from the musical arrangements which are often very good. If Only are a band that show promise and with more recording experience they will certainly improve. As far "as this album is concerned, well it's only a bit iffy.

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