Playlouder - Music is the Network

When even the Kaiser Chiefs are denouncing British indie/rock music as boring, then you know the scene is in trouble. In such a climate the arrival of the splendour is very welcome, their debut Best Way To Make Money is pretty sharp, entertaining and occasionally bordering on excellent.

It’s pretty much the 2^nd good album that Franz Ferdinand didn’t make. It’s infectious art-rock, with a smattering of wit. Songs like Audio and Money buck the formulaic trend by having songs with breaks, bridges and effects you weren’t quite expecting and by having lyrics which are catchy, but not too obvious. They even manage to chuck in a balled in the middle to break the pace.

At 13 tracks it does overstay its welcome, with weaker tracks weighing down the second half, though it does use the old trick of placing one really good number, Saturday Night, just before the end to make sticking with it a bit more worth it.

It probably isn’t going to shatter anyone’s world. But it gets the feet tapping without being badly samey or predictable and if just a few more bands were like this, then the UK indie realm would a less baron place.