Scottish pop rockers Texas are back with new album Jump On Board, their first album since 2013’s The Conversation. Before the release of their previous album, they had been on an extended hiatus, but got back together in 2011 after one of the members had a health scare. Sadly, they’ve never quite managed to reach the lofty highs they maintained in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, but hopefully Jump On Board might help the band get back there, as it’s not a bad record.

By Jane Howkins

The songs here are typical of Texas and they don’t stray too far from the mould. There are hints of electronica in the background but that’s par for the course in 2017 and thankfully the band haven’t gone too far in that direction with their classic pop-rock stylings dominating the album. Most of the songs are good and fans of the band will like this but there’s one major issue and that’s that it’s just a bit too safe.

There are some songs that stray from the beaten path but, for the most part, Jump On Board is too drab and, at times, can even come across as boring. The tempo of nearly every song is the same and there isn’t all that much to distinguish between them. To be fair to the band, Sending A Message and Can’t Control show them trying to do something different but it’s it is still lacking.

It’s certainly not a bad album and there is much to like here but with today’s short attention span, it’s questionable whether Jump On Board will manage to recreate the hype of Texas’s youth.

Jump On Board by Texas is available now.