Album Review: Through The Windowpane by Guillemots

Is that pronounced "gillmots" or "gee-mo"? Arguments rage, but after three attempts to finish their debut, Birmingham's most oddly named band make the classic mistake of all new major-label signings following a bidding war. It's a wonder any of their songs emerge intact from the production soufflé engendered by the label's big studio, which provided everything from school playground noises to recorded seagulls. But emerge they do - both because of and in spite of singer Fyfe Dangerfield, who doesn't always have the hooks on which to hang his vocal gymnastics.

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With their EP From the Cliffs, the Guillemots introduced themselves as daring, energetic, inventive performers for whom traditional pop notions of harmony and rhythm could be discarded, or at least tweaked, if a better opportunity presented itself. And despite all the warning signs of pretension and inaccessibility, the Guillemots were able to create in From the Cliffs something that was very listenable and fun. Of course, there were problems, but they were problems of over-ambition and -eagerness, and they seemed easy enough to remedy without disrupting the band's rather intricate overall sound.

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