Various Cruelties: 'Great Unknown' - Single review

There are few things as gut-wrenchingly painful as a break-up. Life may well be filled with enough death, destruction and disaster to make a failing relationship seem like the least of our worries, but there's something utterly raw about the sucker punch of once-tender love spiralling in on itself. It's a shame then, that this track about a couple teetering on the edge ("Do we let it or go or hold on?/ Do we see this through together as one?") is so utterly meh.

Various Cruelties' (sounding part Kooks, part Razorlight, a teenie, tiny part Arctic Monkeys) previous single 'Chemicals' was a chirpy enough 2004 retread with just enough about it melodically to elevate the Leeds boys above some of their eternally pub-bound peers. But recording an insipid break-up song is a crime against pop. It's way too early to write off Liam O'Donnell and his gang, but they need some essential homework (The Shangri-Las, Bob Dylan, hell, even PJ & Duncan) and to come back, once more, with feeling.

Watch the 'Great Unknown' music video below: