The importance of good sleeve artwork is hard to overstate. For a start, it's the first thing you see when you're in the record shop, but more importantly, it's a statement of intent. It's a visual manifesto. It tells us how the band see themselves and how they want to be seen. Just look at the jacket of "Kiss & Tell". Sharp, angular, classy and just generally the most God damn beautiful album cover I've seen in a long, long time.

There's not much of a leap forward from the Swedish punkers' 2001 breakthrough album "Jennie Bomb", which is an undeniably GOOD THING, but what shift there is manifests itself in a move towards something a touch more sophisticated and lean edged. There's nothing on here packing the sheer punch of "Alright Alright (Here's My Fist Where's The Fight)", although "Walk On The Wire" and "Hot Night Crash" have a pretty good crack at it. Where it wins over its predecessor is on tracks like "Stupid Tricks" with its dry, almost Morrissey-esque lyrics, and the stalkerish "Stay/Stay Away" which marries the synth-line from The Strokes' "The End Has No End" to some killer Runaways chord changes.

If the last album was a kick in the teeth, "Kiss & Tell" is more of a sneer followed by an enigmatic put-down that just spins round and round in your head the whole way home. It's sharp, angular, classy and God damn beautiful. -Ian Martin, Jun.12.04

Kiss & Tell