The long anticipated debut album from Bell X1 finally arrived. After long deliberation I was still unconvinced. The album I felt lacked energy, it was lack lustre and insipid in parts. However in the subsequent interval between this review and my conclusion I had the opportunity of hearing the band live in radiant form. The same songs I heard had new energy, passion and stunning musical talent. If this had been captured on the album we would have had a stunning debut.

The album opens on the soothing and catchy "Pinball Machine" which was the opening single off the album. This is closely followed the guitar driven "Man on Mir". Other favourites on the album included "Slowset", "Godsong" and my personal favourite "Face". Songs like "Alphabet soup" and the touching "Boy loves girl" were dropped in favour of a track like "little sister" which already debuted from their days as Juniper.

Overall I feel the production by Nick Seymour and Rob Kirwan has over influenced a possible classic. The sound is over produced, too clean cut and some songs even soul less. However the songs are lyrically challenging and the musical style is extremely creative. We eagerly anticipate new work which we are sure will drive this band to where they deserve to be, the top!