4

I'm dreaming of an album with some goddamn guts.

Fresh from supporting Magnum on the UK leg of their European Princess Alice & The Broken Arrow Tour 2007, 'Can I Dream Again' is UXL's debut album and comes hot on the heels of their second single 'Beautiful Today' (you'll get my view on that one later...).

I'll get the boring stuff out of the way first:

1. Three of them are brothers.
2. They cite Zeppelin and Hendrix as key influences.
3. The album was recorded in Wolverhampton.

Is everyone clear? Good - let's get straight into the pie then.

Skipping over the intro (as it's only an intro after all - and a rubbish one at that), the eponymous title track makes one thing abundantly clear: UXL are no more fans of Hendrix and Zeppelin than I am of Elkie Brooks. In reality, UXL are big fans of Evanescence, Catherine Wheel, Savage Garden, the genre of Christian Rock and The Eurovision Song Contest.

THIS.

IS.

UNFORGIVABLE.

I order anyone in agreement with the guys of UXL to stop reading this review right now. I really don't want to associate with you.

Ah - the aforementioned 'Beautiful Today'. There's no easy way to say this: It is truly awful. If you want something more penetrating: "dreary", "insipid" and "nonsense" were the words that immediately sprang to mind. The lyrics sound like they were contributed by a lovestruck Adrian Mole after he ingested five litres of White Lightening and smoked a gram of smack while gazing at a fuzzy Polaroid of Pandora's box. Yep, it's pretty much a love song...okay, you may be able to argue that it's a bit more complex than that (maybe the core subject is the altruistic urge to build someone back up after a personal tragedy) but it still contains the following...which I've ripped straight outta the liner notes:

"Isn't She Beautiful (X6)".

How about THAT for a chorus? It's been estimated that the English language contains over 990,000 words. UXL obviously thought this was far too many to think about and that the three detailed above would suffice.

I can hear some of you muttering that perhaps UXL wanted to keep it simple; that the arrangement of those three words is somehow inexplicably powerful, magnificently romantic and imbued with such a wondrous sentiment that there was no need to over-egg the custard. You're wrong - and here's my riposte to you:

If you want to hear what a great romantic song should sound like, DO listen to Death Cab For Cutie's 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark', Tom Waits's 'San Diego Serenade' or The King's 'Burning Love' (or 'Always On My Mind' for that matter). DO NOT do what UXL did and listen to Eric Clapton's 'Wonderful Tonight', Chris De Burgh's 'Lady In Red' or Wet Wet Wet's 'Angel Eyes'. If you need further convincing, I only need another two words to shut you up for good: James Blunt.

The rest of the album is a pretty standard compilation of rock-lite ballads, heart-rendering confessional diatribes and mid-tempo blow-outs. 'This Life' starts promisingly enough with its rollicking cacophony of drums, acres of feedback and fuzzed-out wall-of-sound bass but after only fifteen seconds, the wad is blown and the words "A child cries for her Mother' ring out. Dang. And just to add insult to injury, it sounded to me like they've nicked a chord progression out of Jeff Wayne/Justin Hayward's 'Forever Autumn'. This is a tune Savage Garden fans will adore.

'Stranger', 'Change' and 'Stay Awhile' are the obligatory acoustic inclusions - though the former does feature a couple of electric riff interludes - and an awful saxophone solo to boot - which I can only assume was deemed a good idea because they really, really want to duet with Sade. Sadly, I can't comment too much on 'Make It', as the second I heard the overenthusiastic 'hoo hoos', I reflexively hit 'Skip'. Please accept my sincere apologies.

'New Dawn Waiting' attempts to tackle the thorny subject of religious difference/conflict e.g. '...the name of god is more powerful than a gun' etc etc but ends up as incisive and deconstructive as a Joe Pasquale routine. 'Drowning Man' on the other hand sees a return to rockier climes - albeit ones previously inhabited by bands like Thunder - and at least 'Stay Awhile' proves that lead guitarist P J Tierney has got the ability to belt out a decent solo. It's just a shame he doesn't bother very often.

And that's the feeling I have about UXL as a band. Musically they're tighter than a member of the 'True Love Waits' clan and slicker than a KY'ed otter - meaning that they're very good at what they do. I just don't believe that what they do is actually any good.

'Can I Dream Again?' is lyrically suspect and musically tame. It's not got the bollocks to quench the thirst of the average greasy-haired-nicotine-addicted-whiskey-drinkin' rocker, but it's also got a little too much weight to ascend to the higher echelons of the charts. UXL seem to be stuck between rock and a soft place.