Albums

Trost - Trust Me

Thomas 19/11/2006

Rating: 2/5

German outfit Trost are yet to make a splash in the UK and a listen confirms why - if you're going to travel, you can't forget to pack the tunes. Their cold, atmospheric trilingual femme-pop shows promise, but repetitive rhythms and unconvincing attempts at sonic invention mean the songs tick by like the school clock at three pm.

Only two tracks stand out; endearingly clumsy dying-bird story 'Sparrows Don't Like to Stay' and 'Black', a poetic murder ballad not written by the band at all, but by Will Oldham. Both these take wistful, evocative guitar as their base, and feel natural in their structure compared to the more 'experimental' numbers. 'The Scales and the Score' in particular sounds like an unfinished cast-off from PJ Harvey's 'To Bring You My Love', minus the sweeping vocals or any pesky emotion.

As something of an addendum, this writer's flatmate came in whilst 'Sparrows' was playing and said he'd quite like to borrow the record. By the time two more songs had played he really didn't want to anymore, and sadly that sums it up all too well.