Starting off with what sounds like a rather predictable Americana rock stylee, The Crimea's debut album then goes on to spring no small amount of very pleasant surprises.

Quirky - as in Flaming Lips quirky - Tragedy Rocks is at once an alternative pop delight and an examination of the darker side of love, drug taking and general weirdness. Intelligent, indeed possibly even a bit too intelligent for its own good, the record offers up several classics in the making, like Lottery Winners On Acid, a jolly singalong number with undercurrents of madness, while Baby Boom - a single two years ago that made the top ten of John Peel's annual Festive Fifty - is a glorious chunk of heartfelt pop rock, one which no doubt Crash Test Dummies were aiming for when they released Mmmm a number of years ago. As is Someone's Crying, as near as an oblique homage to Leonard Cohen as you're likely to find outside his immediate family.

Lyrically the band are up to it as well: "If you want to see my happy side/better tell me that my girl just died", on Girl Just Died being a case in point, while on Losing My Hair frontman Davey McManus compares the world's greatest events with the prospect of becoming follically challenged. Priceless.