America. Regardless of your opinion on their past foreign policies, their diet culture and all those other things which make up our friends from across the pond, there is no denying that the land of the free has produced some of the best genres, bands and songs of the last century. Rock music as we know would be nonexistant without the preceding works of country music and jazz, and more recently, the wave of American alt-folk and acoustic music has caused quite a stir on British shores (and TLOBF readers should know that already, given as we review so much of the sodding stuff!). Many of our best bands took a lot of influence from our American counterparts, and it is rare for bands nowadays to return the favour and model themselves on the British sound. Maybe it's because that when they do, they tend to sound like the worst of our music. And for The Delta Spirit, this is most certainly the case.Touted as a soulful rock band, The Delta Spirit comes across more like a bad combination of the wuss-rock indie bands we were subjected to in the early noughties. Take 'Trashcan' for example, which sounds less authentic American and more Turin Brakes, it's hard to figure out where the appeal lies for this particular brand of mid-tempo yelpy pop. It's a competent track, but nothing more. You can see it being a radio hit for about five seconds, but increasingly irritating afterwards. 'People C'Mon' is predictable, both lyrically and musically. Indeed, most of the lyrics in this album are so easy to follow and foresee that you end up singing the rhymes before singer Matthew Vasquez reaches them himself. I swear that there are many many bands doing the pub circuit who do music exactly like this, and maybe even better.'Parade' is a dull track. Okay, you've recorded the guitar in a cabin or church or something, so it sounds all big and retro. Right. Now can we have some substance to back it up please? The whole song can pass you by without remembering anything about it. 'Children' starts with a glimmer of hope, but then well....it gets boring. There just isn't anything behind it. All the anguished vocals and layered guitars feel fake, regardless of original intentions. 'Bleeding Bells' sounds like a Bright Eyes song, and is only really listenable because I can just about believe it's a work of another bands. The Delta Spirit have no identityThere is also the standard predictable waltzy tracks 'House Built For Two' and title track 'Ode To Sunshine', with the former channelling Interpols reverby guitar twiddliness at times, and the latter having a prominent organ part and a brass backing. Wow. The brainstorming sessions for this album must have been done last-minute (or indeed over a Bright Eyes CD).If this reviewer's opinion is sounding a bit like an all out panning, it isn't meant to be. It's just a normal panning. The Delta Spirit are tehcnically not a bad band. Far from it. There are just too many times in this album where you feel you're retreading the same old ground. Admittedly, progression and originality are not the watchwords of a modern pop/rock band, but there has to be something special about any band in order to make people open their wallets or type their credit card numbers into iTunes in order to purchase Ode To Sunshine. And The Delta Spirit just don't do enough to make me want to buy this album. They sound like an obvious pastiche of bad British bands, not a band that keeps its influences hidden behind it's own individual music. And whatever merits they do have, it's just overruled by the overbearing boredom of the tracks that make up 'Ode To Sunshine'. 40%

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