Hooton Tennis Club - Big Box Of Chocolates (2016)

Hooton Tennis Club's second album 'Big Box of Chocolates' was produced by Edwyn Collins at his Clashnarrow Studios in Helmsdale, Scotland. If their debut album, Highest Point In Cliff Town, released in August last year, was the band's sprightly statement of intent, Big Box of Chocolates may well be their coming-of-age: a record that retains all the colour and invention of their debut, while being elevated by richer instrumentation and lyrics that hint at slightly heavier themes: love and loss, nihilism and the 'non-spaces' of Northern England, all delivered in the band's typically laconic, bittersweet style, like a Mersey Beat Murakami. The dozen tracks continue the band's knack of combining catchy off-kilter riffs with droll storytelling; album narrators - vocalists and guitarists Ryan Murphy and James Madden - seem to straddle optimism and uncertainty with their lyrics, whether singing about their internal worlds or commenting on a motley cast of characters (Bootcut Jimmy, BBC 6Music presenter Lauren Laverne, Lazers Linda…) who turn up across the album's 41 minutes to amuse, tempt or torment them. Whether fictional (the awkward genius Jimmy 'looking shifty in his new shoes') or real (Ryan's ex-housemate immortalised in first single 'Katy-Anne Bellis'), each character shares an equal platform, all revered in Hooton's own low-key way.