I felt like I kinda had to listen to this one, such has the fuss been over it. These guys got to the top of the UK charts on their own speed, sans evil record label, which definitely deserves some attention, but the whole thing still seemed a little phony to me thus far, as do any goings on in the chart music scene. Really I expected a lot of unnecessary samey noise from this. I saw them do “I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor” on Jools Holland and while the track is catchy and the band certainly have a surprising appearance, it all seemed very one-hit-wonder.

This album was a surprisingly comfy listen, though, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m still listening to it at the end of the year, it’s certainly one of my faves so far (that’s not as pointless a remark as it sounds, I never got round to writing about Toto’s “Falling In Between”). I think what really won me over was the lyric, “And I’m so tense, never tenser, Could all go a bit Frank Spencer?”

There is a lot of the noise that I expected, but it’s well-produced, coherent, true. In some respects it reminds me of The Streets’ “A Grand Don’t Come For Free”. It’s a voice from real life, like a documentary at times. I love this stuff when it’s done well, and there’s stuff in here that’s near-heartbreakingly-real. As to the funny Scottish guy who complained about the smoking guy on the CD’s cover, I guess he didn’t actually listen to the CD, being as there’s a whole song poking fun at the police forces :-p I think he needs to get his priorities right, lol.

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