This album is a fascinating mess. Don’t Stand Me Down sounds like a band so determined to make something Important that they forgot to make it enjoyable. The tracks are long, talky, and oddly theatrical—Kevin Rowland often seems more interested in rambling monologues than in actually singing. You’re not so much listening to songs as sitting in on slightly awkward rehearsals for a musical no one agreed to write. There are flashes of charm—lovely instrumentation here, a nice melody buried there—but they’re stretched to breaking point over bloated arrangements and an exhausting sense of self-importance. It’s not unlistenable, but it feels like hard work for what should be soul-infused pop. A brave failure, perhaps, but still a failure.