Terrorvision Regular Urban Survivors Total Vegas VEGAS CD 3

Trading in spunky pop-rock with self-consciously clever lyrics, Terrorvision seem poised in the yawning gap between Jesus Jones and the mercifully departed Wonder Stuff. Not, you'd think, the best place to be at this moment in pop history, but it seems to be working for them: "Perseverance" was a substantial hit, and a welcome one too, being one of the few pop songs of recent years to deal with such unfashionable issues as commitment.

Their third album Regular Urban Survivors finds the group trying to pass themselves off as chipper Britpop relations to the likes of Blur and Supergrass, though in places here they're actually closer than they'd imagine to the flatulent pomp-rock of such as Marillion. "Conspiracy" and "Hide The Dead Girl" aim for the narrative scope of Blur but tend to inflate single scenes into whole songs. The result is a patchy whole in which the lyrics provide rather more enjoyment than the music. Best line: "We're sick of feeling guilty when we haven't been caught".