Finding glimpses of joy is very much the theme of Mystery Jets’ seventh album, ‘A Hole To See The Sky Through’. Across - for example - the title track, and ‘Godrays’, the indie stalwarts sing of “seeing a rainbow through the thunder” and someone who’ll “clear a hole to see the sky through”. The irony is that listening to ‘A Hole To See The Sky Through’ often feels like a similar exercise: searching patiently for fleeting flashes of excitement.

Predecessor ‘A Billion Heartbeats’ felt urgent, spiky, and politically-charged. It was a record that crackled with purpose, sounding worlds away from the sugary exuberance of 2008’s ‘Two Doors Down’. ‘A Hole To See The Sky Through’ never quite matches the urgency of the former or the charm of the latter, often content to drift into comfortable territory.

Too many tracks here settle into a pleasant enough groove, yet never quite ignite. ‘Long Lonely Road’, for instance, has all the codes of a slow-burn Motown number, but none of the life and energy instilled by the magnetic harmonies the label was known for. Elsewhere, the band’s ambition feels undermined by awkward execution. ‘Anaglypta’ is their attempt at a Springsteenian epic, yet ties itself in knots with overwrought lyricism, as they try to fit “Over the silos, sanatoriums, and cinemas tonight” into a melody not quite built to accommodate the phrase. (It doesn’t help, either, that its central refrain is the slightly ineffectual “Run run run away from this place”). 

Hope comes in the form of tracks like ‘Black Sage’, ‘Flea Joint’, and ‘Godrays’. In particular, ‘Black Sage’ – a real highlight with its gloriously fuzzed-out riffs and glittery synths – and ‘Flea Joint’ recall the technicolour, arms-aloft joy of 2010’s ‘Serotonin’. There’s no denying that ‘A Hole To See The Sky Through’ is a record with plenty of heart, often wearing it proudly on its sleeve. It’s just a shame that, despite spending its running time searching for light through gathering clouds, too few of those rays shine brightly enough to linger.