Girl's World/Sweet Surprise single reviewed by Mark at Losing Today

Is there no stopping these dudes, not content with sending our hi-fi into states of unparalleled bliss with their previous visit to these pages with the stylus sizzling twin set 'critical mass' and 'dear maniac' - so good it was we're still bearing the scars. As though refusing to let off you hook St Albans finest now stump up to brand new spanking cuts in the shape of 'girls world' and 'sweet surprise' which we've just noticed is cut on a limited edition red wax 7 inch which we'll have to nail as our own in the coming days. Another faultless foray into record world, the superbly airy 'girl's world' sees them in mellower moods, still very much time slipped in the 70's though this time assuming a decidedly tasty countrified pub rock element to their creative canvas that unless we're very much mistaken sounds not unlike the Modern Lovers shimmying up to the Flamin Groovies to gouge out battered and punch drunk Faces riffs with Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds coolly heading up things at the controls. Flip the disc for the decidedly more forthright and rollicking 'sweet surprise' which it has to be said comes flying out of the traps at such a blistering pace it leaves you breathless and pinned helplessly to the far wall of your listening space, a rampant bar room bruiser that craftily tweaks and tinkers with the gung ho mentality of Stiff's finest the Damned as though on this occasion finding themselves squaring up to the Dead Boys with Pete Shelley sneakily taking up the mic amid the ensuing melee, scorching stuff.