It think this is how things must have sounded in 1963 just before we got Beatlemania and they went all weird and made some awesome music in the process (what happened to those guys?). The Ray Summers have got that retro feel covered especially in lead track 'The Shepherd' it's got that indie big beat sound that is glazed in ska-esque melodies, pop hooks, and a vocal that for the life of me I'd swear was the dude from Ocean Colour Scene. It's bloody freaky! Maybe all the 60's tune-age has me tripping, I do not know!

And that is my only bug here and it's much more evident in 'Narcotic Girl.' The Ray Summers sounds so blatantly like Ocean Colour Scene so much so that it's totally unavoidable. But you know I was always an Ocean Colour Scene fan so for me hearing this brings back memories of 97' and less happily Chris Evans! The Ray Summers do enough though to just pull through with a quality to their playing and their songwriting that show they are more than a copy-act. The spiraling outro to 'Narcotic Girl' specifically demonstrates this.