Ryan Ferguson

Only Trying To Help is as generic as album as you’ll ever find, from its drab artwork to its "memorable only while listening to them” songs. And that’s a shame because there was a time when Ferguson’s previous band, No Knife, sounded like they were capable of, if not quite taking over the world, at least producing something interesting. Yet Ferguson seems to have gotten all that interesting stuff out of his system in the past decade because this really isn’t very good. That might be a little harsh but there’s clumsiness to his lyrics and as he attempts to emulate bands like Weezer and the Beach Boys, he picks their uglier later albums as inspiration instead of their classics. Maybe he’s just trying to find his feet but as it stands, there really isn’t anything to recommend about Only Trying To Help.