Best Coast have a lot to answer for. It seems that when one band pops up spewing gorgeous surf-inspired melodies from every orifice more are destined to follow. The origins of Chief are steeped deep in Los Angeles, coincidentally the same place Best Coast hail from, and there are a lot of similarities between the two. For one, the tempo gauge never seems to move past “amble”, and songs just seem to flow effortlessly without too much effort on the part of the listener. The one contrast in this case is that Best Coast have recently lazily rattled their way through an entire debut album which borders on the magnificent. Chief, sadly, haven’t.

If, like myself, the first taste you had of Modern Rituals was the rather fantastic ‘Breaking Walls’ then you’ll have been lulled into a false sense of expectation. Similarly ‘The Minute I Saw It’ is pretty good, and once or twice you get the feeling they’re going to suddenly burst into life. This moment never arrives. Instead after 11 tracks of vague nothingness you’re at a loss to explain what exactly has just happened. Even the cover is a rather uninspiring beige that doesn’t entice the listener in.

When you go to ‘This Land’, a mere four tracks in, even the band start to sound bored – singers are rotated to try and spice things up but sadly it all falls flatter than ever. Only the aforementioned first single ‘Breaking Walls’ attempts to break the monotony, but then it’s very much business as usual until the thoroughly disappointing ‘Night & Day’ which signals an end to proceedings.

While obviously it’s not the band’s thing to be particularly lively, any kind of interest or spark would have been a welcome relief on Modern Rituals. As it is, like the waves of the beaches that lap along the coast of LA, this will simply wash over you.