The Little Ones 'Morning Tide'

Why are The Little Ones not smiling in their promotional photographs, even though they're all wearing extremely brightly coloured clothing, standing somewhere beneath a burning hot sun on what appears to be a palm lined Californian boulevard, and, judging by the onslaught of hyped up UK fad press, have, well, a lot to smile about?

Produced by James Ford, their debut album Morning Tide reeks of the slick production and [potentially] beat-keeping know-how that the Simian Mobile Disco frontman has become synonymous with in his previous forays behind the desk; namely with the similarly pop worthy Arctic Monkeys and Klaxons. And while The Little Ones definitey have the commercial potential of the aforementioned post-internet super groups, they lack the x-factor that gave James Ford the ability to create a slick, sellable package while simultaneously lending his hand to something that has definable musical uniqueness and the potential to recieve critical acclaim.

Not to say that Morning Tide isn't a worthy pop album - it is. 'Ordinary Song' skips its way through 3 minutes 35 of the happiest summer drenched, well, happiness, this side of the Kaiser Chiefs (for whom The Little Ones recently supported on tour). It's just that that kinda seems to be all they've got - happiness. Full stop. Extra fullstop. And that, ironically, doesn't make me that happy.

But hell, they've got an illustrated bird on their cover from which multi-layered trees and nymphs are growing out of, behind a pink mushroom mountain and moon-sunset, and you can almost believe that this was the kind of Bambi-esque fairy tale happy endings The Little Ones envisaged when they were writing Morning Tide, and I similarly enjoyed Bambi in the same way I enjoyed this album; a once of, an unmemorable but enjoyable-at-the-time, time.