Everything You've Come To Expect is The Last Shadow Puppets' second album, and follows eight years after their debut. But, after all this time, have a rebranded Alex Turner and Miles Kane managed to live up to the expectations set by the energetic music they wrote at 22 that wouldn't have seemed out of place in a Bond soundtrack, or have they fallen tragically short?
The album starts fairly strong, with Aviation - edgy and dark with a decent riff. There's nothing wrong with the song, but I just can't help but feel it's lacking the energy that they used to have; it all just feels a little bit too tame. This then moves into the slower Miracle Aligner, a track mainly sung by Alex Turner that's reminiscent of the Submarine soundtrack, and again, it's not bad, but I find myself craving something more - the song has a bit of a Miles Kane shaped hole in it.
The next couple of songs are extremely mediocre. They're listenable, but that's probably the highest praise I could give them. And just when I'd almost given up on the album, they come out with Bad Habits, which, whilst a bit repetitive, is far more interesting than any of the other songs on the album to this point. An energetic Miles is very refreshing - Alex's crooning had become very boring - but Bad Habits is three minutes of punchy, quality music, and an insight into how much better the album could have turned out if it wasn't so cautious.
Unfortunately, the album falls back immediately into dullness, and, while it comes close with Pattern, it just never really grabs my attention in the way I expected it to, or in the way the first album did and still does. The inconsistencies in the quality of the songs frustrates me. They seem to have failed to have created a solid sound for the album, and the 'sophisticated' style that Alex Turner is going for just doesn't work for me.
2/5 - Alright as background music, but not a lot else.
Written by Johnny Wilson
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