"It's the quiet times that get you" is the starkly unsettling assertion made by a browbeaten Darren Ford on the doldrum-esque opening track to Welcome to Winners. Clearly, Lowgold's recently enforced tarriance in the pop wilderness (the band's former label Nude went belly up) has left its psychological imprint. But while the blunt and deliberately dispiriting odour of exhaustion hangs over dimly-lit tracks like "Keep Your Gun Dry" (a forthright admission of world weariness, musically redolent of a more caliginous interpretation of Bruce Johnstone's "Disney Girls") any band which names its second album as vaingloriously as Welcome to Winners isn't about to throw in the towel. Thus, Lowgold came shining through on "We Don't Have Much Time" and "Just a Ride", a brace of radio-tailored pop numbers picking up from that moment where Del Amitri discovered the Byrds. And while they haven't done enough to circumnavigate the ongoing Travis comparisons, they ought to feel pretty annoyed if words such as "Americana" continue to get thrown their way. The tidy harmonies and glossy self-absortion will irritate those who prefer their tortured artists to come unshaven and dishevelled, but Lowgold are a band more at home with writing songs than striking poses. Welcome to Winners is a dependable return and it's hard to see how they can continue to sustain their lack of commercial good fortune. --Kevin Maidment (Review copyright Amazon.co.uk)
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