Six albums down and more than a decade in, have comfortably built out their own corner in the modern indie pop sphere. Their early slowcore records have softened over the years into something warmer and more polished, and traces of the Texas-turned-Nashville duo can now be heard even amongst today’s big names. Take and , for example. On ‘Big World’, though, Hovvdy sound a little too comfortable staying in their usual lane.

Following the sprawling and deeply personal self-titled double album ‘Hovvdy’, the pair wanted its follow-up to feel shorter and more organic. and took to the studio with loose instrumentals instead of more concrete demos, piecing together the songs across sessions with longtime collaborator in Nashville and Asheville. Yet for all that spontaneity, ‘Big World’ is a surprisingly safe listen. It sounds relaxed, but not necessarily adventurous, easy to leave playing whilst you get on with something else. It just rarely gives you a reason to stop what you’re doing and properly listen.

‘Life So Wide’ is a particularly sweet start. Its delicate fingerpicking and close, double-tracked vocals carry heavy echoes, as Martin moves between familial memories and declarations of love. It is sweet without overplaying its sweetness, and one of the album’s strongest moments. ‘Way Down’ follows with a half-country lilt, before ‘JJ’ settles into Hovvdy’s familiarly breezy indie-pop. The problem is that the songs pass pleasantly enough, but just leave very little behind.

There are occasional attempts to lift the pace. ‘Blast’ introduces synths and programmed drums, whilst lead single ‘Try Try Try’ provides the most definitive jolt of energy in proceedings, with an upbeat chorus built to stick. ‘You Will Go Far’ offers another welcome burst of warmth later on. These tracks keep ‘Big World’ moving, even if none of them push far beyond what the duo have already established.

The quieter songs work better taken individually. ‘Starry’ is slow and simple, but its tenderness lands. ‘Junk’ is similarly peaceful, moving from toolshed clutter towards much bigger questions about why we do anything at all. Across the full record, however, one sleepy track following another begins to drag. The sentimentality also occasionally tips into cliché. “Love yourself, only you can do it,” goes ‘Give It Away’, before offering the Hallmark-ready “loving ain’t a feeling till you give it away”. The fiddle on ‘What I Had’ is a nice addition, although it pushes the song dangerously close towards kitsch.

‘Untitled’ is the album’s clearest misstep. Its heavily processed vocals appear to be reaching for a brief Bon Iver-esque interlude, but the track passes without adding much of anything. Strangely, it is only once Hovvdy reach the final song that the record truly comes to life. ‘Wannabe (Radio Queen)’ begins quietly before pedal steel and increasingly assured drums gather around growing fears of loneliness. It is less polished and more emotionally direct than much of what comes before it, exactly as Hovvdy had hoped. The rest of ‘Big World’ could have used some of that friction.

There is still almost nothing here to actually dislike. It’s obvious thar Taylor and Martin understand each other deeply as songwriters, the record’s warmth feels genuine and could make for the perfectly pleasant soundtrack to a slow Sunday morning. But “pleasant” feels like a low ceiling for an act this far into their career, especially one whose influence is so often overlooked. Hovvdy helped establish this sound. On ‘Big World’, they continue to do it well, but offer little that they haven’t done before.

7/10