Album: Everything Everything, Man Alive (Geffen)

You have to admire the sheer originality of "pop's new Picassos" (NME).

Because while EE sound in snatches like ELO, 10cc and XTC, what this four-piece have really gone and done is melded the art-rock smartness of Franz Ferdinand to the student-disco floor-filling sound of, say, Scissor Sisters. It's all very clever-clever and in a world of Kasabian that must be applauded. A little too sure of their own ingenuity? Perhaps. A tad too willing to fly into falsetto? For sure. But as debut albums go, this is mightily impressive.