Serena Maneesh

According to the most wondrous and informative of sites, Wikipedia reliably informs that ‘Serena' is Spanish for ‘night love song' and ‘Maneesh' is Hindi for ‘lord of the mind'. I think it might be best to stick to their native Oslo's name, ‘S-M'.

I also think it might be best not to say who is in the band exactly, as there are eight of them, and if Norway had made the World Cup, their names would sound more or less exactly like the eight remaining members of the team on the pitch by the end.

Apparently their hub is Emil Nikolaisen, and he has been widely credited with this ‘brand' of indie, alternative, shoegazing, dark, Nordic pop rock which clearly overlays similarly styled Velvet Undergroundy sounds of decades past. I can only presume that this accreditation is justified and that his past experiences as guitarist in various bands, and on tour with S-M supporting The Dandy Warhols and opening up to Oasis in the last year or two have been guiding factors in their rise to international release.

But cut to the chase I shall. This album is extremely frustrating. The first track, their single ‘Drain Cosmetics', has a lively intro, a catchy dirty guitar and drums to wind you up into an appreciation of Nordic rock. It is a healthy opener and one which if I were a dozing rock-loving cat, would cause me to prick my ears towards the speakers in expectation of something to rouse a purr. Track two, ‘Selina's Melodie Fountain', had me metaphorically licking my paws in delight, and the same mucky and dark guitar and rhythm goes on to track three, ‘Un-deux', but then by Candlelight (number 4), something happens. What happens is it gets crapper.

Well paw on heart, that's a bit on the harsh side. What it does is lose its way. The lyrics, the catchy guitar, the foundation drums and what I thought was the very S-Mness of it all takes a long walk. It pops back in from time to time, but it doesn't stop for long enough to have a cup of tea. Maybe dirty guitars don't drink tea….no they'd swig Jack Daniels from the bottle, but in any case, the alluring parts of the first three tracks sod off and in their place comes a lot of shoegazing.

It might well be your bag, so don't let me put you off in any way. In fact listening to the whole album is recommended – it has been highly acclaimed in North America and the Nordics.

But, cat metaphors and cups of tea aside, I just think it's a shame that the first few songs enticed me in, only for me to find that after track three, Emil Nikolaisen finished reading a book on music and existentialism and decided that it would work with his band.