Another great hope for the guitar-based alternative pop/rock circuit, Hard-Fi have had a lot of expectation heaped upon them by music and mainstream press alike in recent weeks.

On the evidence of this debut the band will probably walk away with every Best Newcomer award going in the next twelve months. The Staines-based four piece had already released a limited edition mini-album of the same title when they attracted the attention of the record industry and became the subject of an all-too-familiar bidding war. But unlike the many who have charted such hopeful waters, Hard-Fi have anything but sunk under the pressure. Instead, Stars Of CCTV is chock full of quality, brimming with chunky, angst-ridden pop/rock classics in the making.

Drawing on their own experiences of the tedium and social alienation of living in a town like Staines, keenly observed songs such as Feltham Is Singing Out and Hard To Beat - the band's "Prefab Sprout moment" - and the album's title tune all use a suburban backdrop to add weight to some pop epics. Tied Up Too Tight is a corker, the plaintive vocals of frontman Richard Archer laid over what could be termed a modern Mod classic.

Hard-Fi sometimes hint at what The Streets might have been had Mr Skinner decided to do his thing with a rockier attitude, but they can also do "thoughtful", as on the bittersweet Move On Now.