Hippies

Quite who Harlem can hope to appeal to, in the UK at least, when music fans here are evidently besotted with sci-fi nonsense one minute and cleverly articulated kitchen-sink dramas the next is anyone's guess. Best to quit the questioning, though, and get down with the rollicking jams they're kicking out regardless of how many people are listening.

With drunken charm and incessant jangle, Hippies may be Harlem's slop-pop consummation.

The music on Hippies is formulaic, but in their ability to work so perfectly within a rigid aesthetic, Harlem hint at real songwriting ability.

When listening to Hippies, it's difficult to forget that Harlem have professed their love for Nirvana, and still more difficult to suppress the urge to tell them to turn down that bass already.

In some ways Hippies recalls the bare, unassuming simplicity of three-chord punk by groups like the Ramones, and while it never attains that level of near-mindless glee, its haphazard mashing of styles creates an infectious if transient blend of songs.