There was a time, back in its beginnings, in which Jon McClure and his project Reverend & The Makers It looked good, hinting that they could even become one of those globally accepted names in the UK (a bit in the Kasabian style) and, therefore, exportable to the rest of the musical planet. They were the sensations motivated by that title debut “State Of Things” (Wall Of Sound, 07) and the pertinent continuation “A French Kiss In The Chaos” (09), which lengthened optimism.
However, and after that (at least) interesting irruption on the scene, the matter gradually deflated with works that failed to interest almost anyone, until motivating the inertia of a career that now leads to this installment. A work that, of course, will not act as McClure’s lifeline, after pointing out a normal composer and, above all, something lost in the search for what would be his current artistic coordinates.
“Heatwave In The Cold North” He frequently points to a type of watered-down soul without punch as a showy element with which to complete the usual indie-pop of the combo, in a formula that neither shows off nor packs. In order to this misunderstood mix, there are cuts that are merely compliant or directly boring as “Problems”, the cloying “I Hate It When You Lie”, “High” or that comatose final stretch made up of “Overthinking”, “The Exception” y “Living Without You”.
The reference frames, in short, a musician caught up in lurches and who has been pecking at different genres and preferences over a decade and a half, betting on a technique that, in the right hands, can work and even leave excellent results. But that, in the case of the Sheffield man, he has become a mixed bag until blurring a line that no longer seems to fit or settle anywhere. A ballast that, as if that were not enough, in “Heatwave In The Cold North” it is specified in a block of flat and obviable songs.