The Rosebuds

Barely a year has past since the 180 that was the Rosebuds’ Night of the Furies but already the duo are back at it with a new full-length, Life Like. However, unlike its synth-lathered predecessor, record four comes not with a taste for the nightlife, disco balls and beat-fuelled floor-fillers but as a return to the group’s more organic indie rock past. It’s a safe move and not an entirely unwelcome one, but it’s also a shift that leaves Life Like something to be desired. While the Rosebuds’ Kelly Crisp and Ivan Howard do a great job of combining their increasingly melodramatic theatrics with the dark, brooding tracks (of which there are several), on the upbeat ones the band struggle to find a hook, making most of these tracks rather forgettable. As a result, the album comes off as a bit uneven, making you wish Crisp and Howard would have dropped the rock altogether and made a full-on sad-bastard record instead. Still, Life Like is no stinker; it’s just not the Rosebuds’ best.