A friend of mine has a story that he loves to tell about one of his high school art classes. The teacher was walking around inspecting and commenting on the results of his students' agony and ecstasy when he stopped at one boy's painting. The sweat and toil that had gone into the painting was obvious, the boy had obviously been listening intently in every lesson and had applied every ounce of his skill to producing the work that would get him the top grade. And what was the teacher's comment? Simply, "There is nothing wrong with this painting".

The freaky arrangements that made The Zutons' recent single "Pressure Point" such a blast are here in force, with follow-up single "You Will You Won't" keeping the momentum of its predecessor. Country-tinged balladry like "Not A Lot To Do" nestles in nicely beside catchy, guitar strumming Britpop like "Remember Me", Ian Broudie's production is efficient and economical, the funk-tinted drum rumble and bass stabs set them apart from immediate peers The Bandits and The Coral...

...but there's something I can't put my finger on. You could put it down the their swift-as-horses rise from the streets to the stars - perhaps if they'd had more time to develop, they'd sound a bit more assured. Here they seem a bit like enthusiastic young conscripts, squeezed into freshly starched uniforms and sent off to war with only a manual on how to fight and weapons that they're not trained to use properly. The druggy, bad-trip imagery of "Nightmare Part II" comes across as a competent pastiche of Liverpool scene legend Julian Cope, but then Cope, even at his weirdest, was always actually saying something. No matter how hard I look, the heart of this album seems strangely cold. They've worked really hard, they've done everything right, their skill in their craft is there for all to see - there really is nothing wrong with this album... -Ian Martin, Apr.25.04

Who Killed The Zutons?