The Futureheads (for William Bloody Swygart)

Er, yes. Anyway.

Funny you should mention it, cos they've got a new single out this week... First Day, on Fantastic Plastic, and I spotted it in HMV Croydon so it ought to be OK to find... 'cept you might be in America, I can't remember. Three tracks, total time scrapes under five minutes, choruses hooks etc stuffed all over the place, guitars go all 80's jangle-jangle in brilliant bouncing off the walls fashion, and th vocals get minced and mangled everywhere like a bunch of Mackems trying to yell out the running order for the Grand National as fast as they can (no actual horse references included).

Classic as anything, obviously.

I'll hunt down First Day and see if it's another grower.

My favourite is still Carnival Kids, though A To B is dead good too. I've got most of the stuff on the ol' MP3, and I can't remember what most of it's called, but it does all show that a major failing of the New York disco-punks is not being Sunderland.

rocks a LOT harder at points.

Click on the tape, track 3.

not complaining, the album is bananas.

where where where?!

anyway, because this album does not have one bad song on it, it must be album of the year, right?

AND THEY SOUND NOTHING LIKE MCLUSKY.

Album of the year so far by a pretty major distance.

The Futureheads : The Futureheads

Hang out the bunting! Yes, the tenth anniversary of Britpop is almost upon us, heralded by a rumoured Menswear reformation, some Oasis reissues and a load of windy cultural commentators banging on in the broadsheets about the cultural relevance of Union Jack guitars, dog racing and Sleeper. But there's one obvious but fairly fundamental hitch: Britpop… well, it was just plain rubbish. Safe, conformist, jingoistic, inordinately London-centric and backwards-looking: little wonder Tony Blair was such a big fan, it was the musical equivalent of the middle way. All you needed to be a half-successful Britpop band was a London A-Z, an Adidas trackie top rescued from a '70s school lost property bin and three albums, two of which were probably by David Bowie. In fact, only three good things ever resulted from Britpop. One is 'Supergrass Is 10'. That rules. One is the fact that whenever Ocean Colour Scene walk down the street children still point and laugh. The last good thing is that music in Britain halfway through 2004 is so region-specific, idiosyncratic and draws on so many varied and unexpected influences that we will never ever accept a bunch of skinny Camden chancers peddling stolen new wave riffs again.

Except Razorlight. But anyway. Let's examine the evidence: Franz Ferdinand - that's million-selling chart act Franz Ferdinand - have single-handedly built a scene around crocheted girlfriends, Orange Juice records and Man At C&A trousers. In Liverpool, a bunch of bands have managed to blend their love of weapons-grade superskunk with Captain Beefheart, sea shanties and the Richard Burton radio recording of 'Under Milk Wood'. Jesus, for the first time in history even the Isle Of Wight - a place with all the edgy creative fervour of a 1950s Butlins camp - is producing good music thanks to The Bees. The. World. Has. Turned. Upside. Down.

The standard bearers of the movement no-one - yet - is calling The New Unorthodox are youthful Sunderland artcore types The Futureheads. Check the signs: not only are they unwilling to moderate their heavy Mackem accents when singing, they also possess a healthy suspicion of London bar prices. Early gigs consisted of them miming to their own music, sometimes dressed as Cybermen. They see no contradiction in covering drippy '80s indie savants the Television Personalities and remixing Mike Skinner. Their influences stretch - imagine! - way beyond David Bowie, sometimes even as far as donkey-jacket-wearing '80s a cappella group The Flying Pickets.

In line with their claim in early interviews that they wanted to make music "as precise as robots", the 15 songs on this debut album (their first release on new label 679) rattle by without pausing to take breath. Helmed first by ex-Gang Of Four man Andy Gill and then rejigged by production wunderkind Paul Epworth it's a sparkly, concise art-rock delight. They've obviously been weened on fundamentalist US punk, and about 47 seconds in we're confronted with four men shouting "Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!", but 'The Futureheads' is not an angry record. OK, it's not only an angry record: the daring acid-fried a cappella of 'Danger Of The Water' explains why they took their name from an old Flaming Lips album, former single 'First Day' is a sarcastic Sunderland Devo, 'Decent Days And Nights' is a perfect fusion of Fugazi and XTC and their cover of Kate Bush's 'Hounds Of Love' (added at the last minute in an attempt to cap the silly prices people are paying on eBay for the single version) is just plain fun. Best of all though - and yes, we're getting well ahead of ourselves here - is the fact that you can imagine wanting to stick around for album number two from this band, an idea which shouldn't really be as groundbreaking or extraordinary as it actually is. But, yeah. Finally British bands are exorcising the ghosts of Britpop. Rejoice!

Pat Long

Rating: 8

Saw them at Maxwell's in NJ and they were fantastic. Possibly better live than on the record.

They were fucking tight (which is an achievement considering the amount of drugs around that day) I remember it being really aggressive and hardcore sounding which is what I think is lacking on the CD, its too nice sounding, the performances on the CD are too polite, they all shouted more. Like the stuttery snare bit on 'Arms' was like Metallica's 'One' or something. The influence of Andy Gill maybe? Their popularity? Tone them down a bit, appeal to more people, I guess I want them to sound like a very english Blood Brothers or something.

Ok, I hate the lyrics on this album period. I dunno why: they don't rely on cliches, and they're smart and sort of ambiguous, which I normally love.

Ok, the lyrics to "Stupid and Shallow" are ok.

BUT any pdx ilxers gonna see em 3/18?

Not Scottish, but not very far from Scotland on the map, either. As far as accents go, I'd say donut probably did pretty well!