Enjoy It While It Lasts

Could Spector be the last guitar gang standing?

It seemed so in January, when the BBC unveiled its Sound of 2012 poll. In the hip-hop and R&B-dominated list of promising artists to look out for this year, this London quintet were the sole guitar band tipped.

On the evidence of Enjoy It While It Lasts, indie's future could rest in far worse hands. It's a lithe, literate and hugely enjoyable debut from five young men who clearly voraciously sucked up the musical influences of the early noughties.

The shadow of the Strokes' sexy, staccato art-rock looms over arch tracks such as True Love (For Now) and the shimmering Twenty Nothing, while hipster-about-town front man Fred Macpherson's languid croon channels Brandon Flowers on the Killers-aping anthem Never Fade Away.

This doesn't mean Spector are Yankophiles. Macpherson has the very British lyrical sensibility of Alex Kapranos or even Jarvis Cocker, particularly on the yearning Friday Night, Don't Ever Let It End ("I thought it was the weekend, but where are all my friends?") and the self-effacing Grey Shirt & Tie.

Fine influences all: but the great news is that Spector are very much their own erudite, thrilling band. An excellent debut.

Album review by Ian Gittins