It was a shame when loveable indie stallwarts Help She Can’t Swim finally submerged beneath the murky depths in 2008. Their additive overdosed petulant child routine was always a breath of fresh air. Commercial success may have eluded them, but their influence can be heard today in the more hyperactive outbursts of Los Campesinos! and beyond. Fear not for their departure though, as frontman Tom Denney has been beavering away in his home studio under the name of Lonely Ghosts.

Return From The Search Party is a mixed bag of material. It’s almost as if he’s unsure quite where to go – he keeps one foot in the past and another in the future but rarely confidently commits to either. Occasionally he manages to recapture former glories on tracks like ‘Hush Up’ and ‘Predictions For The New Year’. He also makes great leaps forward on the New Order-esque ‘Green Eyes’, but the majority of the songs fall short of either camp and disappointingly drop through a gap in the middle.

Many of the fundamental song structures fail to hold up under scrutiny. Help She Can’t Swim may well have been a lo-fi racket, but acoustic performances demonstrated a solid core. Tom seems to be aware of this flaw and attempts to gloss over things with bells and whistles, but it’s never enough to paste over all the cracks. Even an appearance from former HSCS member Leesey Frances providing backing vocals and clarinet can’t save the day.

Lyrically he muses over the maintenance of a status quo. On ‘Come Down From The Mountain’ he sings “When I was young I didn’t trust anyone who didn’t have any problems / I’m the same way now”. His Peter Pan existence of remaining untouched whilst the world transforms around him is again documented on ‘Statues’. It’s heartfelt stuff, but it stifles and suffocates his immense potential.

Like Frankenstein’s monster Return From The Search Party has all the right appendages, but its creator fails to breathe the spark of life necessary to make it all work.