Brighton upstarts Goodluck Jonathan seem to have a little trouble in propelling themselves forward. Quite aside from the fact that this is the follow up to their debut This Is Our Way Out EP 1, whilst listening to it you could be forgiven for thinking that they’re trapped in 2004. Only if this had been released back in those heady days then I’m sure it would have been plastered all over MTV2 and dripping with Zane Lowe’s saliva. That’s not necessarily as bad a thing as it might sound though, a lot of great bands emerged and/or benefited from the increased popularity of the kind of accessible blend of math-rock and emo which they deal in and it slots almost neatly alongside the better of those bands such as Your Codename Is: Milo or Jetplane Landing, but often seems sadly derivative by comparison.

Opening track ‘Fatman’ and it’s almost comedic hoe-down style riff belies a bleaker spirit as Nick Brookes spits “My heart’s getting faster // I think it might explode // I don’t want to die alone”, a sense of anxiety which fits perfectly with the frenetic energy which courses through the track. This rampant energy occassionally seems to come at the expense of the songs themselves though and ‘Fall of America’ is particularly beige in this respect, it might contort every which way but still the only thing which really stands out is the rather irritatingly over accentuated regional accent. ‘Backs To The Wall’ too is frustratingly hollow for what ostensibly seems to be ‘the single’, it’s rasping guitars and chants about fighting one another’s corner seeming a little trite and undercooked. Particularly when it’s followed by the group at their most potent on closer ‘Away From Here’, a much less jerky affair which pairs delicate guitar picks with soaring vocals aching with a somewhat unprecedented fragility – ‘I swear I saw you smile as you sat and watched me die’. It works beautifully with the more submerged production, particularly on the chorus which exudes a faint haziness, in sharp contrast with the angular clarity of the rest of the EP.

Whilst there’s no doubting they’ve got a few ideas, and there’s certainly a tight dynamic and contagious energy to these tracks, yet it still manages to fall frustratingly short of feeling substantial. Goodluck Jonathan are going to need push themselves a little bit harder in terms of focus on their song-craft in order to create something which might stand them apart from their peers.