Pop's history of love and loss has come up with some truly s**t lines. Crashland's 'New Perfume' can't make up for the hell that is Celine Dion's life's work but surely "Since you went away I've been a lost cause/A boat without oars" goes a long way towards being a pretty good apology.
The Welsh-Bristolians' long-awaited debut 'Glued' is full of such eminently quotable fodder, underpinning the sort of punk-hearted indie which can lazily be compared to Supergrass. They do share with the Oxfordian kings of the sideburn a fondness for exhaustingly-spirited blamalama guitar pop and a natty way wth a tune (don't listen to 'New Perfume' too often if you don't want to be singing it for twelve weeks afterwards) and Alex Troup isn't vastly dissimilar to Gaz Coombes in vocal style (if not facial hair).
But Crashland, unlike the 'Grass, haven't quite consolidated their sound. That's not necessarily a bad thing , for their simultaneous love of kick-ass punk noise is a truly passionate foil to their languid Britpoppery, and their angst never compromises their melodicism. But they do veer off into Green Day surf punk awfulness ('Submission' - the only song on which narrative talent seems to have entirely lost the Trooper ("if you don't crack up/Break down") and lukewarm balladeering ('Collide Again').
Once they find a little more focus - as long as it isn't either of the latter two options - Crashland should grow up to be something well worth shaving your sideburns off for.
