Ward Thomas return too often to country comforts on new aspiring pop album Restless Minds

Ward Thomas                        Restless Minds             Wtw Music/Sony, out Fri

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Nashville. Memphis. Vegas. Liss. It’s fair to say that a 13th-century Hampshire village is an unlikely hothouse for country music stardom, but these are strange times. 

Liss has nurtured the talents of Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas, 20-something twins spearheading a recent surge in the popularity of home-grown country – let’s call it Brit-clop – by tweaking the formula of glossy New Nashville acts such as Sugarland and Lady Antebellum.

Having topped the charts in 2016 with second album Cartwheels, Ward Thomas are now seeking to graduate to fully fledged pop glory. You can see the logic. 

Having topped the charts in 2016 with their second album, Ward Thomas are now seeking to graduate to fully fledged pop glory with latest album Restless Minds. You can see the logic

The transition paid off handsomely for Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus, and may yet work for Ward Thomas, although on the evidence of Restless Minds the first obstacle they need to overcome is their own ambivalence.

Citing Lorde and Cardi B as key inspirations, and written and produced with a backroom team whose credits include records by Shawn Mendes, Little Mix and Paloma Faith, Restless Minds begins as generic R&B-inflected fare of sleek vocals, digitised beats and whooping refrains.

While Rather Be Breathing and Never Know zip along with immediacy and charm, the mid-tempo blandness of Hopeless and Ain’t That Easy is more typical, cookie-cutter pop that dulls their sublime sibling harmonies.

A Nashville-honed knack for a killer chorus and an arresting lyrical angle keeps things moving, but as the album progresses it feels like Ward Thomas aren’t entirely committed to the makeover. They return increasingly to country comforts.

I Believe In You and It’s Not Just Me barrel along agreeably, and the soulful Changing shows off their voices to moving effect, but well before the downbeat conclusion of Deepest You and This Too Will Pass, this pop expedition has run out of steam. Liss or Las Vegas? They just can’t make up their restless minds.

The Specials                                       Encore                                     Island, out now

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Encore is a spirited but disjointed mix of originals and covers

Though The Specials reunited a decade ago, minus main songwriter Jerry Dammers, they are only now in sufficiently rude health to tackle a new album, 38 years after the last, a lay-off that makes Kate Bush look positively over-zealous.

The result is a spirited but disjointed mix of originals and covers, traversing jazz, funk, dub, ska, spoken word and polka. Vote For Me revisits the queasy dread of Ghost Town but, like much of Encore, lacks bite.

They’re as socially engaged as ever, confronting mental health, racism, sexism, gun crime and – on the energetic Embarrassed By You – ‘nasty little brutes’ in hoodies.

But while Terry Hall’s voice remains gloriously dyspeptic, few tracks are likely to displace old favourites when The Specials hit the festival circuit.

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