Four young Londoners, fresh out of school, formed in 2005, operate within the boundaries of the indie-rock genre. Almost everything about Bombay Bicycle Club screams 'Libertines-influenced dullards' going on their description alone - but these young chaps are much more clever than the slew of arrogant young men brandishing banjaxed guitars and pork pie hats.
True, they may have risen through the ranks via a cheesy Channel 4 Battle of the Bands contest (their annual 'Road to V' competition), but there's nothing hackneyed about Bombay Bicycle Club. For one thing, the Jack Steadman-led band have a superb ear for the unusual chord progressions and rhythm structures last heard on Friendly Fires' debut ('Always Like This' sounds like a distant cousin of one of theirs, or Vampire Weekend's album tracks), which makes the majority of their debut album unpredictable and often slightly eccentric.
Although Steadman's tenuous vocals are comparable to Orlando Weeks of The Maccabees at times, its fragility doesn't impede these songs; from the post-punk 'Lamplight', which tiptoes between soft rhythms and raucous blasts of indie, to the Echo and the Bunnymen-like 'Dust on the Ground' and the chic, echoey European stomp of 'Autumn', there's a palpable freshness about 'I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose'.
True, there are one or two dips in form that could be deemed slightly generic guitar pop ('The Hill' and 'Magnet'), and the glitchy breakdowns in the middle of several songs are perhaps unnecessary. Overall, though, this is a peach of a debut.
