Morcheeba, it seems, have arrived. Three albums into a career that's seen them unreasonably maligned as miserablist trip-hoppers, the London-based trio have become serious pop contenders. Congratulations are most certainly in order.
But the problem is that, in attempting to be all things to all people, Morcheeba have lost something special. You can hear it - or, rather, you can't - when the super-slick 12-piece touring ensemble play tracks from the band's 1996 debut LP 'Who Can You Trust?'. 'Tape Loop' gets an early airing, its dark corners brightly lit by a smooth, sophisticated performance, its brooding malevolence replaced by Skye Edwards' Blue Peter presenter smile.
You feel a churl for not getting into it, particularly in a room crammed with converts, but the truth of the matter is that Morcheeba are too perfect.
Ross Godfrey's slide guitar work is now a faultless embellishment rather than a spine-chilling howl from a musical dark side; brother Paul's DJ decks are still given centre-stage prominence but the dusty grooves that clicked and hummed underneath their earlier material are now superfluous.
Where they were once a rough diamond, reflecting the world around them in unexpected ways, Morcheeba are now symmetrical, rounded, their abrasive edges smoothed out, their spiked angles removed.
The hits will keep on coming. There's plenty to be said in favour of songs like 'Rome Wasn't Built In A Day' or forthcoming single (and, doubtless, massive hit) 'Be Yourself'. They're still better songs than most of what gets to hang out in the upper reaches of the Top 40, and success couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.
But in their laudable and understandable attempt to distance themselves from the carping of the cynics who marked them down as Portishead-by-numbers, the group have stopped being special.
It's hard to imagine the chorus of 'Moog Island' - "The music that we make can heal all our mistakes and lead us" - meaning the same now as it did four years ago, to us or to them.
It's to their undoubted commercial advantage, but it's still a shame: Morcheeba are easier to like, but much more difficult to love.
