Clapton Fox puts you in that autumn mood. MGMT – Time To Pretend’s evil twin, the album ‘Amazing Thunderstorm’ is deep, dark and damn right devious.

If you’re anything like me one of the first things you’ll do when contemplating the purchase of an album is read the track titles. You’ll quickly notice that ‘Twelve Pairs of Shoes’ sounds like the title of a Rolf Harris song, right? Well actually it’s surprisingly appropriate because this track is an uncanny impression of Rolf himself singing along to ‘The Mars Volta – Televators’. I’m not going to lie, that’s fine by me and if you turn down the reverb and synths on ‘She Ate the Feather’ (another Rolf Harris copy-cat title) you may find yourself listening to a song somewhat akin to any given track of Massive Attack. It makes me feel mellow, though there’s no denying that this track isn’t for everyone. For those of you seeking something trippy, loose and experimental, this is the one for you. Everyone else, just press skip.

I’d like to go to a band-practice with these two (George Zampirolo and Robert Kaniepien) and turn off the electrics to get to the ‘soul’ of their music. If you left them in charge of baking a victoria sponge cake they’d top it off with smarties. Every song starts off real tasty then the duo get excited and start overloading the songs with unnecessary extras. They need an acoustic album really. Yeasayer’s takeaway show for La Blogotheque showcases the band lurking around the streets of France with a glass bottle for rhythm and a stranger’s piano for blues. This sounds a million times better than any of their studio recordings. You wouldn’t expect that from a psychedelic pop group but you know what? It works. If Clapton Fox strip it back a bit we might be on to something magical. Proof:

It’s not quite a background album – but it feels as if it should be – kind of like Moby. It’s got enough welly to convince you to put down your iPad and give it listen but it hasn’t got the kind of pizzaz to get your head boppin’. A little bit awkward really so I’ll tell you what situation this album is good for.

Lets face it, we’ve all grown tired of Nina Simone, Jack Johnson, Paulo Nutini and such like at every family meal. Your uncle isn’t going to like Clapton Fox because ‘This malarky isn’t quite Pink Floyd.’ but who cares? It’s not a car album, oh no. This is definitely a kitchen deal. I don’t care if you’re cooking, cleaning or eating, it works… trust me. Heck, I wouldn’t even put this on my iPod. I’m stealing my brother’s boom box – and it’s going in my kitchen – along with my Clapton Fox CD. It’s the kind of music that makes you want to clean because you know it will take your mind off wiping the sides and maybe even persuade you to stay long enough to de-grime the oven. Yea, I said it.

So if you haven’t got yourself a kitchen album, get Amazing Thunderstorm. Just un-wind.