Go out and buy an indie record

At the end of June The Subways released their second album. It is without question the best guitar-band album we have heard all of 2008. But considering the eternal popularity of British guitar bands and the continuing existence of Pigeon Detectives and The Fratellis, it is an ongoing mystery why The Subways couldn’t get noticed by the wider British public if they set themselves on fire. Or handed out cash in central London. Or let a sex tape ‘leak’ onto the internet.

The overlooked album is called ‘All Or Nothing’ and by the looks of things, it’s going to be the latter for The Subways despite being amazing songwriters and even better performers. They shot themselves in the foot slightly by releasing a rather average single ‘Alright’ (the name summed the track up nicely really) but songs such as ‘Obsession’ and ‘Shake Shake’, ‘Kalifornia’ and simple ballad ‘Move To Newlyn’ are some of the finest guitar pop songs of the year. Their first album was an incredible blast of rough, edgy teen punk, but this release is a streamlined, finely crafted piece of work which balances perfectly between classic pop writing and the last remnants of a teenagers angst as he approaches some degree of maturity.

We appreciate that this is being posted just before nine on a Monday night so most people will be settling down to watch Dragons Den and aren’t going to go and do what the headline here suggests, but perhaps when the shops open in the morning, you might like to think about buying a copy of ‘All Or Nothing’ by The Subways. We’d give it 8 out of 10. Perhaps 8 and a half.

It is certainly too good an album to let fade into obscurity while everyone is out buying the Basshunter record instead.