Vehicles & Animals

From the moment you slip the record into the player, and the first slightly distorted drum beats of 'El Salvador' begin to play, you can't help but tap your feet. Ignore the fact that it sounds a lot like Avril Lavigne's 'Complicated', it's better, and happier. And the mood doesn't stop - on single 'Westside', the band even helpfully shout out 'Chorus!' as your cue to start singing. The vocalist Joel Pott's friendly vocal twang complements everything the band play - whether it's skitting hip-hop drum machine on 'One Million' or the brilliantly witty singalong of 'Dungeness'. 'You Got The Style', amazingly about the racial divide, is another fantastic karaoke song, though it manages to be serious as well as great fun.

There are, granted, slower tracks, but not Radiohead or Coldplay slow. 'Shake Those Windows' and 'Beautiful' are stunning, maintaining the easy melodic flow whilst sounding just a little less manically happy. The former has the most instantly likeable chorus I've heard in many years. There are some poignant moments too - 'New Project' for instance, with the lyric 'Imagine this is all you ever had', and the title track, where Pott croons gently along with acoustic guitar, daring you to join him, until the whole band comes in a wonderful coda

Naturally the album has its weaknesses, like 'Out Of Nowhere' - a daft track that just sounds plain weird after the non-stop cheeriness of the whole album. I'm not even sure that the heavy guitar break on 'New Project' was necessary, it always wakes me up when I'm trying to drift off. But these are minor blemishes on an unabashedly happy, bright and summery record that offers something a little different. If you want a walk in the sunshine, or you're driving home on a Friday, put this on, and you'll get home in a defiantly pleasant mood.

That's how you sum up a debut album with as much life, humour, and originality as this.

The comparisons to Pavement, Beta Band and Coldplay don't really do Vehicles&Animals justice. But that's because Athlete are very hard to describe.

The songs shift direction - one minute classic indie, the next 80's casio, into hip-hop and back home for a rabble-rousing feel good anthem. But this isn't mad experimental schizo-pop, it's a surprising, fun and entertaining approach. And most importantly -it really works.

Stand out tracks include the theremin punctuated New Project, riot-inspired sunshine-filled You Got The Style and the utterly beautiful sing-along You Know.

In the indie music industry currently dominated by garage rock and blues (not that there's anything wrong with that) this is one of the most refreshing alternatives around.

If you don't have a smile on your face after listening to this then there's little hope for you.

All the tracks are highly melodic with choruses that you'll be singing all day. Somehow the Athlete boys have managed to blend musical genius with a style everyone can enjoy, a very wise commerical move! But while the songs are all brilliantly written and dangerously catchy it's the keys and synth that set this band apart from the rest. It's the most interesting music you'll have heard in a long time, with strange sounds all over the place but used in a way that doesn't make it sound messy or over complicated and you'll never lose sight of that underlying melody that accompanies all the songs. Joel Potts' vocals are just as catchy with the cockny accent being used to full effect and if you're not careful you'll start singing with one after hearing this! My personal favourite track is "Shake those Windows" but this really is an album where 12 different people could have 12 different favourite tracks and they'd all be right. Not one weak track. Brilliant stuff.
You're collection isn't complete without this album, can't wait for the next one.