The Futureheads - News & Tributes

The highlight of the eponymous Futureheads debut was their cover of Kate Bush's daft Hounds of Love. We shoulda known, at that point, that here was a band destined to, well, leave us wanting just a bit more substance.

They have traits of "mod" and lots of promise, those Futureheads, they sprung upon us at more or less the same time as Dead 60s and that bloke off of Big Brother's Ordinary Boys, they like a choppy guitar, a rhythm-driving punchy vocal and they implore us to Worry About It Later and ponder whether the answer's Yes/No.

Like Weller, like The Who, like Secret Affair (hah!) in their respective eras, Futurheads talk directly to us, they empathise with our 21st century plight. Well, I say ours, I mean the plight of those that wear polo shirts, tight pants and pointy shoes.

Their approach is quite nice, their aural doodlings listenable. But the difficult second album is a bit of a letdown and, without a Kate Bush track, there ain't no highlights of which to speak. Which is sad, really, cos they could have brightened up a lot of people's worlds.

Ironically, there's a track on News & Tributes called Skip To The End, which sort of says it all. Sort of, in a disappointing, lacklustre way. You've let me down, you Futureheads!