The Mansions - Charms for love and revenge (Prometheus)

This is instantly recognisable as Brit-rock with some nice little Indie undertones. Self confessed fans of both Pulp and Suede these influences can be heard scattered throughout The Mansions' debut album.

But this is not your typical Brit-rock by numbers album and The Mansions do bring something unique to the table for us all to feast on. There are enough hooks and big choruses on display here to keep the record buying public happy and, if we had more than a handful of decent radio stations, it wouldn't be unimaginable to picture these guys spread over every possible station.

'Under the sky' could be Bowie jamming with Suede somewhere in the Alps, while 'Rock and roll' twists along to a ghost train keyboard riff that probably came straight from Garbage's "How to write a rock song" guide book. Open hi-hats drive the song into an almost sickeningly sweet chorus that has the word "HIT" plastered all over it.

Ken McGrath