Quite what Nottingham formed, London based The Grave Architects are aiming for with debut effort Love Reaction is something difficult to grasp. A ten-song album, it ranges through pop, rock, country, folk and even rap; the band seemingly attempting to be simultaneously amusing and emotive – all through nostalgic tales of childhood and love loss. Yet, despite the fuel of heartache, Love Reaction doesn’t manage to make much of an impact.

Love Reaction opens fairly inoffensively, with the jangle pop of ‘Last Night I Dreamed About Her’. Inoffensive it may be, but the song is equally as uninspired and dull, and lyrically it needs little more explanation than the six words of its title (“Last night I dreamed about her / it was my first mistake / my mind just paces ‘round her”). Although not unpleasant, and immediately demonstrating the band’s ability to put together a fairly catchy pop song, vocals lack any kind of emotion despite singing of apparent torturous heartbreak, and Love Reaction’s opener makes no statement of intent.

‘Highway Be True’ disappointingly picks up where the opener left off; still lacking the emotion, energy or invent needed both musically (guitar switches from chord to chord repeatedly with no progression, and the country-styled structure of the song is disappointingly predictable) and lyrically (“now hearts they need a home, and it’s hard when they start roamin’ / and love’s a journey with peril at every turn”).

Things rarely pick up. ‘The Bike Song’, despite being a popular YouTube hit, is about as dragging as you’d expect a seven minutes and thirty four seconds song about a bicycle would be. Although contained within the jaunty pop tale is relatively catchy moments of upbeat “bah-bah”’s and synth, the band unfortunately decide to include a mid-song mock-rap breakdown. Although probably aiming to be fun, tongue-in-cheek and light-hearted humour, it’s poorly executed and edges closer to the side of being offensive – the fact that they are mocking a perfectly relevant genre of music made worse given The Grave Architects aren’t making sounds anywhere near as significant or important in their fields of choice than those that they try to mock. On ‘Rejection’, the band again attempt to jokingly rap with equally as unpleasant and cringe-worthy results – the lyrics attempting to draw laughter not even managing to crack a smile, and the same applies to the Gregorian monk style sung spelling of “r-e-j-e-c-t-i-o-n”.

Although largely weak, Grave Architects do show some promise on their debut release, though usually don’t manage to sustain it for full songs. ‘Puppet’, for instance, has moments where the band dip into slightly dark and heavier moments, with enjoyable heavy guitar riffing, drum cymbal crashes and dramatic piano. However, it’s all too soon that the band switch from this, to dull piano-led pop ballad. ‘You Don’t Know Me Like I Want You To’, although a poor attempt at a Johnny Cash song for the first three minutes, switches to a krautrock-style motorik driving drum beat alongside guitar strums and whirring synth. Again, though, it isn’t long before a further synth line pierces through, replicating the plain chord progressions from the previous few minutes of the song – which simply doesn’t work and reminds of why this song was unpleasant.

Perhaps what is most frustrating is that it seems apparent that The Grave Architects could make a strong album, void of joke-rapping and trying to make people laugh. With a clear knowledge of a range of musical stylings – the ‘funny’ rapping has a very Fun Lovin Criminals feel, the noisey synth on ‘You Don’t Know Me Like I Want You To’ gives a definite nod to 80s British post-punk, the lyric “at her shoes she gazed” does (perhaps unintentionally) force a grin, moments of joyful jangly pop, and hints of the aforementioned Johnny Cash – plus the ability to sometimes construct catchy tunes, Love Reaction might be a lot better. At best, it’s a collection of light-hearted and sometimes mildly catchy songs from a band that demonstrate ability and a decent knowledge of musical stylings. At worst, it’s a dull, lifeless, confusing and at times nearing offensive mash of pop, folk, country, rock, and rap.