Help She Can't Swim have noticed this - look at the inside of the lyric booklet at the advert for bands to play in London - "New London promoter is looking for bands with 'cool' image to play live. Standard of music is irrelevant so long as you have good haircuts, clothes, style, and don't look boring". Obviously not a real advert but such jabs at the state of the UK's music scene is present through the album most notably in the lyrics for 'What Would Morrisey Say?', "...Just strut around pouting and looking wide-eyed/ like this was britpop circa 1995/ but menswear split and pulp are gone/ and now everyone likes garage rock/ you dance like adad at a disco/ what would Morrissey say?". Or read the lyrics for 'Are You Feeling Fashionable' "Godbless the music press/ because they made you believe that the strokes are the best".

The album is a bit short (11 songs - 25 minutes) but Help could have easily added a few songs or stretched out a song so I think it's deliberately made to be short and snappy. Which is kind of their style, I mean the lyrics aren't really covered with a fog of metaphor; they're in your face, easy to understand, bold lyrics. They don't exhaust songs, they get straight to the point, no faffing about just plain and simple, straight-forward good music.

Their guitar style is reminiscent of Sonic Youth - especially in the melodic parts where they turn off their distortion pedals, and the chaotic bits where it sounds like the guitarists are trying to sellotape their guitars to rotating helicopter blades, whilst drunk. There is a sense of urgency in all the songs here. There is a message to be told, whether it's about the triumph over self-pity, tackling sexism, the current music-fashion love affair, the typical fight outside a club social scene, love, etc. and you get the feeling that Help really need you to listen.

Unfortunately the album lacks a bit of variety that would have been really appreciated somewhere in the album, especially since there are eleven songs that aren't majorly different from one another. Aside from that flaw, Help She Can't Swim have produced a respectable debut album filled with confrontations in lyrics and important messages to todays society. The music is very, very good and just about every song on this album could work as a single. Quality moments include the melodic break down in 'Are YouFeeling Fashionable' and the visceral explosion that follows, the call and answer shouting in 'Sensitive Youth', the almost annoying vocals courtesy of Leesey Francis in 'Boy Toy', the brilliant vocal melody and sympathy seeking lyrics in 'My Own Private Disco', Tom Denney's screams - anywhere on the album, the imaginative guitar and keyboard playing on pretty much every song, and well, there's plenty of great moments on this cd but right now I keep taking quick looks at the lyric booklet. It's design looks like it was done by a load of children in an art lesson in Lower School. You can practically smell the Pritt-Stick!

It's also extremely affordable wherever you buy it (possibly to make up for what it lacks in length). Right now, I'm very proud to have this cd in my dusty cd rack.