The problem with Hey Trouble is that it lacks that most essential prerequisite of pop music - excitement. One might ascribe that to Victoria Bergsman's departure, but truth be told, while In Colour did indeed have its rainbow moments, even that latter didn't come near the frost-edged joy of the band's debut lp - as much as I want to continue to like the Concretes, it looks as if that first album might have been one out of the box that the band will never be able to top, or even replicate.
On Hey Trouble, a couple of songs in the middle, "Oh Boy" and "Keep Yours" take off a little bit, and there are aspects of others which save the rest of the album from being a dead loss ("A Whales Heart" doesn't really hold together as a song, but has some nice hooks and textures; "Firewatch" is a bit catchy in an In Colour sort of way), but in general too many of the songs just meander along, seeming to echo or quote melodies rather than being really melodic in their own right and never properly catching alight. A disappointment, and maybe a reminder of how ephemeral genuine pop inspiration almost always seems to be.
