The Stands: Horse Fabulous

(Herald rating: * * * *)

Well the last British band that sounded this much like the Beatles did okay didn't they? Even if Oasis hit a extended dull patch, which they've only just pulled themselves out of.

But these young Liverpudlian chaps are on only their second album after a little-heard 2004 debut.

And there's something both forgivable and compelling about their brand of Beatlemania - they seem to be mining a period somewhere between A Hard Day's Night and Help!, so it's as energetic as it is reverent.

Throughout, frontman Howie Payne sings with a Lennonesque bite, though he manages a passable Van Morrison too, on the plodding Just Enough Love.

Elsewhere the songs come with a lot of 60s spark, hook and harmonies. They're at their best on the I Will Journey Home (George Harrison-ish folk rock), Dolt Like You Like (sounding like Ticket to Ride over the riff of the La De Das' How Is The Air Up There) and the Beatlerock of Soon Come.

They do manage to be almost contemporary with the Britpop twitch of Nearer Than Green and the closing ballad You Said, with a string-laden hint of the Verve.

But mostly the Stands make an album that's certainly not going to get them run out of town. And it's all the more enjoyable for it.

Label: Echo/Liberation