Caesars: 39 Minutes of Bliss

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * *)

More garage band rock with a pop/Iggy Pop sensibility following Definite Article Bands like the Strokes, the Datsuns, the Hives et al. Caesars from Sweden are similar, except way more poppy.

They mine early 60s and late 70s punk-pop ruthlessly (four-chord thrash of Let's Go Parking Baby, Farfisa organ), and recycle themselves also.

This is their second incarnation and they rehit songs of the first line-up. Jerk It Out could be pre-teen Oasis filtered through Paul Revere and the Raiders.

Ramones-like they say they wanna sniff some glue, Crackin' Up is jaded Buddy Holly over a lo-fi backing, and they toss in some amusingly oddball lyrics, too.

You're My Favourite is a love song to a woman older than the singer's mother ("of all the extras you're my favourite stand-in, you're always my second choice") and on the 96 Tears-like Kick You Out frontman Cesar Vidal says he is "a man with a fork in a world of soup".

A real metaphor of teenage alienation, right?
Label: Virgin