The Kooks

Luke Pritchard, singer with the Brighton-based four-piece, has already been described as ‘one of the best young pop writers around' a declaration that I'm wholly inclined to agree with. The songs on offer on their debut album ‘Inside In / Inside Out' are testament to this fact. From the haphazard opening chords of the acoustic ‘Seaside' and into the indie blitzkrieg ‘See The World' you are drawn in by tribal yelps and true British musicianship.

These four lads are young but mature with riffs a plenty this guitar based pop hits the musical lobe of your brain to induce endorphins normally associated with other types of creative expression. Every song is worth a mention here, the classic Dodgyesque single ‘Sofa Song', the acoustic gem ‘Ohh La' and they even tackle the delicate subject of impotence on ‘Eddie's Gun'. ‘Paper Dreams' has that warm Liverpudlian swagger that's more associated with The Coral while ‘If You Don't Love Me' has more of the Supergrass vibe about it's head rockin' swagger. ‘Matchbox' and ‘Naïve' lead us down a more chilled Maroon 5 route and just when they've shown that nothing is beyond them ‘Jackie Big Tits' gives us a real warm anthemic tune, which echoes of ‘Whatever' by Oasis.

Put briefly, this could be the album of 2006.