It's been a great couple of years for Irish music. Where once there was a dearth of innovation (i.e. the *spit* singer-songwriter scene that saw every young man with a Leaving Cert poetry book, a broken heart and an acoustic guitar swamp the nation), Irish bands in the Noughties are offering alternatives in the truest sense. One of them is Dublin-based five piece Spiders, a funk-electro-rock collective that formed in 2003 but have only gotten around to releasing their debut album now. Although they can't lay claim to being the first funk/soul crossover act out of Dublin in recent years - Republic of Loose have that one sewn up - Spiders have still managed to craft a deliciously eclectic, if occasionally samey collection of slick, funk-driven songs with Romantic Bastards. From the Shaft-like danceable opener of So, to the T-Rex-meets-Queens of the Stone Age-style glam-rocking Under the Mirrorball, lead singer and songwriter Fran Power demonstrates an impressive turn in writing and genre-merging arrangements. The warped, beefy soul of Bad Dreams, woozy, offbeat velocity of Hysteric and quirky, Gomez-aping riffage of Stereodream are all equally stirring, while sole female member Michelle Considine gets a look-in, too, on slinky electro-lounge closer Machinations. The obvious stand-out here, however, is the edgy Cheap Thrills, a track that twists and swerves with the momentum of a Starsky and Hutch car-chase. Romantic Bastards won't woo you with flowers, chocolates and individuality - but it's got a shrewd, slick charm that makes it perceptibly hard to say no to.

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