Or an idiot's guide to student radio these last ten years. From the REM flavoured opener 'Heaven Sent' through the - god bless 'em - Chapterhouse reminiscent 'It's Alright' and on past the Radiohead-lite of 'Don't Die Young', Sweden's The Motorhomes are obviously a band that have soaked up British indie like a sponge. Drip-fed an endless supply of the miserable and maudlin, they've produced with this their debut album a pretty exhaustive summary of all those pale and interesting bands to have soundtracked your existential angst years just before you discovered the redemptive powers of beer.
'Songs For Me (And My Baby)' is all very pleasant but if there's one single original note or sentiment on the whole damned thing then Sweden will win Euro 2000 at a canter and I'll score the winning goal in the final. So many bands have based their entire career on the template laid down in 'The Bends' and 'OK Computer' that it makes you wonder just how much we actually need Radiohead to come back with anything new. There must be more Thom Yorke impersonators out there now than there are those of Fat Elvis and The Motorhomes are just the latest in a seemingly endless line of knock-kneed impostors. Less convincing than Coldplay or the mighty Muse but intermittently affecting none the less, there's the odd glimmer of the undeniably extraordinary here that hints at something other than pure homage.
If you like your rock music to be a little on the self-conscious side and hushed enough not to wake the neighbours then this should adequately kill those weeks before the new Radiohead album is finally delivered from on high with a clap of thunder. That'll probably see 'Songs For Me (And My Baby)' quickly consigned to the largely unnecessary and no longer played section of your record collection - file alongside the Longpigs - but it'll have been, well, fairly good while it lasted.
