PAWS create with Cokefloat! an LP of perfect slacker guitar pop that benefits from having lots of hooks, and just enough dirt on the windscreen. It neither comes across as too rusty, or the wrong side of amateur; instead what is showcased here– with help from Rory Atwell at the controls– is a real sense of something really rather wonderful going down.

Last year London band Yuck got in first and took plaudits almost everywhere for bringing the joys of Dinosaur Jr, Swell, and Pavement to the kids of today but acts like Paws and Dignan Porch, among others, have taken up the baton while that band take time off.

You can hear the drums loud and thick on opener ‘Catherine’, a track that would fit nicely on the latest Cloud Nothings (another) album. “It’s been at least ten years but I still hold a grudge against you” begins ‘Homecoming’, giving us an idea of the lyrical tone on some of the album, yet this track in typical fashion pops and rocks along in direct slacker-rock fashion that is ready to come out the other end positive and stronger for the dumb-ass experience. ’Pony’ is quiet-then-loud-then-quiet again, yet about as pop and as pretty as anything on here. It doesn’t have a chorus as such, the chorus seemingly being a blast of heads down, guitar-and-drum freak-out, before things quieten down again to take another breath.

Like everything else in the ever-increasing disposable pop music scene, this current fad for late 80s/early 90s American college ‘loser’ rock-pop (PAWS are actually from Scotland) will implode and something new will come along– although what that will be is anyone’s guess. Right now, though, the innocent-but-bittersweet, instantly pure indie sounds of Cokefloat! is just about good enough. A steady, full-of-hooks, and supremely LOUD effort.