Who is going to buy this? Surely you’ve got their excellent ‘Our Earthly Pleasures’ album by now? This feels more like an excuse for Paul Smith’s mob to throw out some more B-sides – ‘Girls Who Play Guitars’ is just the necessary peg to hang them off.
The lead track just feels like it’s been pressed from the Maxïmo template with the barest effort to give it the jittery supercharge that usually separates a single from the North-East quintet from the identikit indie that’s set up camp in radio drivetimes up and down the country.
Paul Smith’s fractured intellectualised lyrics? Check. Taut, precise stabs of guitar, bursting into energetic rolling choruses? Check. Little mellow breakdown backed by keyboards and Smith repeating a borrding chanted vocal? Check.
Still, why not entertain yourself with the video for a few minutes?
‘Girls Who Play Guitars’ is out on August 20 on Warp Records. The band's pretty-much-sold-out UK tour kicks off on October 1.
