Sometimes music is best first listened to with an unprejudiced, objective ear and a blank canvas with no preformed opinions on what a band sound like. Armed with sketchy Wikipedia knowledge that the Phoenix Foundation are a six piece hailing from New Zealand who wrote the score of the film, Eagle vs Shark, I plugged in my earphones and got walking to work.

From the outset, Happy Ending naturally seems to split itself into two halves – the first half being infinitely better, adopting an ethereal sound laced with influences across the musical spectrum. Starting with the band’s latest single Bright Grey and running through to the seventh track, A Day In The Sun, the album is a surprisingly good offering from a band which is little known throughout the northern hemisphere.

With an Arcade Fire-esque introduction, Bright Grey is an uplifting eye opener to the Phoenix Foundation. It has carefully crafted beautifully simplistic plodding guitar riffs, xylophone tinkles and the Beach Boys-tinged vocals of Samuel Flynn Scott. Slumber Party is a slow harmony laden track with haunting keyboard riffs and is hugely comparable to Radiohead’s Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box.

Throughout the first seven tracks there are so many great comparisons to be made – Belle & Sebastian sounding rhythms and chords, Air’s All I Need and La Femme d’Argent-style compositions on Gandalf and Bob Dylan lyrical influences. There are even hints of Stone Roses on 40 Years and elements of the Shins generally running throughout the album.

And then tracks eight to twelve happened and gone was the chance of Happy Ending matching the promise of the title.

In came a host of odd western and country guitars and whistful melancholy was replaced by depressed wailing on a track ironically named Pure Joy. Aside from moments of a return to the album’s initial form on the tune Omerta, the remaining tracks dangerously wavered over the easy listening compilation line.

Despite the disappointing latter half, the Phoenix Foundation has pulled together seven really listenable, emotive tracks which are laden with musical talent and would sound perfect in any festival field. Happy Ending is an album of contrasts – contrasting musical influences, vocal sounds, rhythms, instrumental choices, genres and topics. This may explain the overall feeling I got that the band are not totally sure of their musical direction and as a result, it won’t be an album I automatically turn my iPod dial to. But I wouldn’t skip if it appeared on shuffle.