No faffing here: just a pair of impressively-produced post-punk tracks from the Wakefield four-piece with designs on Oxford. ‘That’s a Nice Glove’ effectively combines the disco inflections of fellow-Yorkshiremen Reverend and the Makers, with a bunch of thick string pads The Killers made cool again and trembling high-end guitars a la Editors. The drumming, incorporating a slick cowbell figure at the start is noteworthy and the vocals are focussed and thrilling. The lyrics are a little woolly; less grounded than those of The Makers’ Jon McLure and an even longer way away from the street-realism of the Arctic Monkeys, but it could be worse: apparently Test Icicles are an influence. That particular shower of shit is no more, so I’d advise The Faff to delete any such references in their promo literature. It’s best sometimes to hide youthful indiscretions.
The partner track is the dumbly-titled ‘Parachuting with Pandas’, which combines most of the elements previously described, but leaves out anything approaching a tune. As a four-to-the-floor dancefloor filler it might be OK, but the band will need stronger material than this to conquer the dreaming spires, let alone the world.