ALBUM OF THE WEEK

BURN THE EMPIRE The Snuts

★★★✩✩ There is a lot to like about this Scottish quartet and their outspoken second album, even if the final package seems less than the sum of its parts.

Combining the searing riffs and righteous rage of short-lived cult favourites Kinesis with the pop hooks of The 1975, The Snuts are a band with plenty to say and many ways to say it.

Subjects tackled include poverty and its political causes, mental health and the related ills of social media. The latter comes on the superblytitled Zuckerpunch.

But while the slow-burning Yesterday carries more than a hint of early Radiohead, it does not reach the heights of its inspiration.

“There’s enough of that to work off though, eh?” says some of the studio chat heard at the end of single The Rodeo, a fitting summation of an album bursting with ideas but coming up just short in its execution.