control my rephrasing.

We can but hope it's not indicative of a lacklustre album.

After I for the first time, met such a structure like 'we can but hope' I tried to paraphrase it. Am I right in my guess, which is:

Let's hope it's not indicative of a lacklustre album. Thanks.

Thanks MrP

You suggesting  that one should  choose  one of its gist versions rather than say  'let's hope..' ?

"We can but hope" is not the same as "Let's hope".  As Mr. Pendantic says, it's the same as "We can only hope".

The idea is that everything possible has been done.  No more can be done to improve the situation -- except to hope.

CJ