Second album from the Sheffield band. This release follows on from their successful debut album, entitled 'The State of Things' and contains the single, 'Silence Is Talking'. Amazon.co.uk Best known for a connection with hometown pals Arctic Monkeys, Jon ‘Reverend’ McClure and his Makers finally offer tricky second album A French Kiss In The Chaos. Since 2007’s The State of Things McClure has threatened retirement, offered out the entire political class and given away an album (by his other band Mongrel) with a national newspaper. Given such distractions the follow-up is unsurprisingly somewhat mixed. Highlights include "Silence Is Talking", a proper indie disco stomper, with a pounding bassline and a nagging horn hook lifted from War’s Latin-funk favourite "Low Rider" and the excellently titled "No Soap In A Dirty War" which borrows a few lines from the Only Ones’ lost classic "Miles From Nowhere" and turns a break-up song into something unexpectedly gleeful. "Hidden Persuaders" is little more than a clumsy lesson that consumerism isn’t necessarily good for you (Jon McClure picked up the nickname ‘Reverend’ for his preachiness, after all). But "Professor Pickles" is straightforward psychedelia, all wheezy organ and slamming snare, "Long Long Time" is a sparse piano-led ballad, nearer to Richard Hawley than Alex Turner while BNP-berating "Manifesto/People Shapers" starts harsh and ends sweet. The closing "Hard Time For Dreamers" gives the game away--McClure voices his fears of war, a Tory government and rising sea levels like, realising that when the Smiths sang about death by double decker bus, they really feared a nuclear holocaust. A French Kiss In The Chaos is inconsistent and sometimes frustrating, but its quirky charm is irrepressible. --Steve Jelbert Review Jon McClure first came to prominence as the flatmate and occasional writing partner of Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner. As the 'Reverend' in Reverend & The Makers McClure then had his own success with 2007 debut album, The State Of Things, which reached the top five. This follow-up is more ambitious than that inaugural effort but suffers from the same variance in quality. For every smart couplet or cleverly constructed song structure there is a crass or naive lyrical sentiment. Hidden Persuaders is filled with unintentionally hilarious conspiracy theory paranoia but says nothing new. A man as politically astute as the Reverend surely read all about the perils of capitalism in Naomi Klein's No Logo? Long Long Time is better to begin with. All minor chord piano longing, it's a Sheffield sibling of Primal Scream's Cry Myself Blind until the moment that it's spoiled by the line, ''Please don't contact me, the river owns the battery from my phone''. Single Silence Is Talking is far better than everything else on the album. The refrain from War's funk classic Low Rider is given a post-Stone Roses psychedelic boost to thrilling effect, while epic, echoing guitars, a White Album-era Beatles drone and baggy Happy Mondays beats are a great accompaniment. Another unnecessary phone reference threatens to scupper No Soap In A Dirty War. Despite this aberration the track's sentiments are familiar to anybody with ambition: ''I don't wanna die in the same hole I was born/ I don't wanna get married in the same church as you all''. Musically it's affectionate, grand and affecting, like a South Yorkshire November Rain without the pomposity. A French Kiss In The Chaos is an accomplished indie album, produced to a high standard. If only its maker didn't resort to hackneyed generalisations about the media having ''license to print lies as facts'' and ridiculous alliteration like ''Professor Pickles prescribing me Prozac pills''. --Lou Thomas This link will take you off Amazon in a new window