Dare

Featuring Simon Care on melodeon and concertina, with Nina Zella on keyboards and vocals, and brass and percussion from Tim Walker, this well-connected trio still style themselves as ‘the world's smallest big band,’ and, as on their bracing debut Yes, they can make a pretty big noise if it suits them. They've been gigging for the past 18 months since that striking introduction, and when they lay into the traditional dance tunes here, as they often do, their sheer gusto is impressively infectious and enjoyable.

On the other hand, the several self-penned tracks tend towards the disappointingly underwhelming, straining for lyrical relevance but mostly just sounding hackneyed, despite their obvious instrumental skills and a continuing cheery disregard for musical boundaries. Unfortunately, any pleasure to be had from its diversity quickly goes astray in the face of the collection's irritating ups and downs. Matters could well be very different in the live arena, of course. Quite what a virtually unreconstructed take on The Police's always dubious ‘Roxanne’ is doing here, let alone closing the album on a faintly desperate note, is anybody's guess.