The debut self-titled album was a stunning display of what they had to offer, and illustrated why they were a truly innovating, fresh band. So anyone who liked that is going to be a little disappointed with this at first. The reason? This so called “truly innovating, fresh band” have not only done exactly the same on album number 2, ‘Doppelganger’ (an appropriate title? - Ed), but even used songs from the first album for this.

It’s such a shame when you listen to this album for the first time when you were a fan of debut. Why they decided to take 3 songs from the first album and debatably “remix” ‘F.C.P.S.I.T.S…’ (all they’ve done is changed the delay pedal settings a bit) is beyond me. The only obvious reason would be that now, they are appealing to a whole new audience and start breaking mainstream, hoping that no one would notice the shameless scheme here. Whether this was an act of the band or new label Equal Vision records I don’t know, but it seems odd that this should happen, since both band and label are fairly independent and honourable.

But, this all a side, ‘Doppelganger’ remains a truly fantastic album. Although on the face of it, most of the new songs on this album don’t seem too much of a progression, there are some brilliantly thought-out moments here. Even tracks which could easily have been debut album b-sides, are still ten times better than what any rival bands could produce. The fast paced riffs and breaks that fly in here are still fairly jaw-dropping, and it’s still very extremely enjoyable music. Any new fans will absolutely love this album.

And it’s not like it’s a total copy of the first album. Where ‘The Fall of Troy’ tried to fit as much into a small space as possible, this is a much more controlled album (quite an achievement for the sheer velocity this band plays at.) They keep those fantastic riffs and breaks you loved before, but shift them down a peg so that you get alienated anymore, and to fit them into much more memorable songs. Take finale 'Macaulay McCulkin'. A song that starts off almost conventional for them, they effortlessly shifts into one of their trademark technical yet catchy choruses, then it turns into a total jazz breakdown and improvisation to finish off the song and album; A work of art if nothing else.

But, for the early fans, you can be as optimistic as you want, but in the end, this all comes back to the fact that, this is too much like the last album. And it leaves your faith in what you thought was a truly imaginative and fresh band left quite distorted. A real missed opportunity from such potential.

Adam Turner-Heffer