The easiest records to review are those that you either fall hook, line and sinker in love with or, conversely, those that you have to rip off your stereo / ipod in the violence of your hatred. Reviewing an album that you just find, actually, pretty unobjectionable? Where’s the fun in writing (or, indeed, reading) that?So we come to Sons and Daughters’ third album, This Gift. At the time of writing I have probably listened to this album from start to finish at least twenty times, yet still find it hard to fix very much about it in my head. The overall feel is of a slightly blander Raveonettes, a much less “down-and-dirty” Kills, or a marginally less glossy Long Blondes. I think they are aiming for a gothic-meets-rockabilly edginess, but time after time this is stymied by the sweetness of the female Scottish-burr of the vocal. 'The Nest', for example, is trying (I think) to sound creepy but ends up sounding actually rather endearing instead.The programming of the album doesn’t do the band many favours either ”“ with the best tracks all to be found in the first half. The strongest song of all ”“ 'Gilt Complex' ”“ is, worryingly, not only the most recent single, but also the album opener. By the time we get to 'This Gift' the best has already been. From 'Flags' onwards, it all becomes rather by-numbers. Perhaps the inclusion of a few tracks that were either a bit more dramatically beefy/robust, or at the other end of the scale, a ballad or two, may have made it hang together in a more satisfying way.A couple of tracks here wear their influences very much on their sleeves. 'Rebel With A Ghost' (that’s “rebel” as a verb, not a noun, by the way) pays tribute to Elastica’s 'Connection' (or is that Wire’s 'Three Girl Rhumba'?); and the intro to 'Darling' rather cleverly merges The Stones’ 'Mother’s Little Helper' with Iggy’s 'Lust for Life'.As to the lyrical meaning of these songs then I’m afraid I am none the wiser after my repeated listenings. Random, slightly “dark” and “edgy” phrases and words can be made out from time to time, viz “poison pen” from 'Gilt Complex', “Watching the scene after the accident” from 'Split Lips', “Pictured me hanging threadbare on the blacked-out wall” from 'This Gift' etc, without ever giving the listener a coherent sense of any message. They also do that annoying thing where they sing rhyming couplets that don’t quite rhyme, notably in 'Rebel With A Ghost': “A spectre of your former self / No reflection in the mirror when you least expect / Wearing my name around your neck / Apparently just self-possessed”.None of this is helped by an over-reliance on “woo-ooh's", and the like, which they use pretty often as padding in a song. This is worst on 'This Gift', which makes an otherwise enjoyable track increasingly cringeworthy as the male / female “ah oo, oo-oo” “ah oo, woo-oo's” come thick and fast and sound more and more ludicrous.In the olden days of vinyl I would probably have given “side one” of this album a fair few plays, but I doubt I would have often troubled to get up and turn it over to the second side. I also have a feeling that in a few weeks’ time I will struggle to remember anything very much about most of the tracks found therein. 58%Links Sons and Daughters [official site] [myspace] [buy it]