Love Inks – ‘Exi’

Minimalist Texas trio Love Inks’ sleepy, sultry night-time music is rarely anything less than beguiling. The songs on this, their third album, come on like The xx ditching introversion for exorcism, as singer Sherry LeBlanc lays tales of longing and loss over the subtly gripping likes of ‘Way Out’ and highlight ‘Regular Lovers’. They’re lovely enough to exist as bare-bones compositions, but frustratingly, most of the songs are perforated with thudding electronic drum pulses that dominate and niggle. The result is akin to drifting off to sleep, eager for ambient dreams, only to have someone repeatedly rap on your door with a biro at the rate of two times a second.