Sourpatch - Crushin' (Happy Happy Birthday to Me)

I had a horrible feeling I'd miss out on this album because I'm totally skint, and although there are some copies available at London Popfest in a couple of weeks (a couple of weeks - woo!), I should imagine other people will snap them up before me.

So, I'm extremely grateful to Mike from HHBTM for sending me a review copy. It's hard to put into words how exciting this album is. First up, the production (or lack of it) makes my heart race. The skattergun drums and distant vocals cut through some seriously lovely, scratchy guitar parts throughout, and it almost feels that if you turn around, then Sourpatch will be playing over in the other corner of the room.

Right at the heart of 'Crushin' is 'Water Without Land' - and you should buy this album just for that because it's the song of Sourpatch's lives. It starts off like The Shop Assistants at their most ragged, before changing half way through into an amazing paean to lost love, with some proper heartbreaking vocals: "Our days are numbered, our days are already gone/And when you remember me, remember me fondly/When you remember bme, remember the good things." Those still looking for songs for their funeral could do a lot worse.

Throughout Sourpatch talk about love and love lost, and that's why this album triumphs. It's defiance really is its number one. 'Same Street' is the very essence of this; about seeking down an object of unrequited love, but its played with such effevescence that it almost seems like a celebration of that, and I think that's pretty special.

And that doesn't just happen every now and again - it happens on just about every song. And when each one finishes you're looking to skip back to the beginning, thinking, "Did they really just say that? Did I really just hear that?"

I've rambled on too much. My friend Rachel summed this album up much better. She said: "It's fucking awesome." I can't really argue with that.