The Wombats: 'A Guide To Love, Loss And Desperation'

While they describe their music as pop-punk, pop-ska might be more appropriate. There are no sharp edges or any defiant nihilism here. Each finely honed offering is full of wry lyrical observations and well placed humour. It is the kind of humour that will either have instant appeal or send the listener into an angry frenzy of misanthropic rage, in either case there is an immediacy to this music that leaves very little hidden for the second listen.

In their own way, each of the songs is delightful; The Wombats hardly seem able to put a foot wrong in laying down likable tunes and phrasing lines with neat comic scansion. Some of the metaphors work much better than others and the ‘just so’ quality inherent across the album makes for some irritatingly trite moments. Such moments as “I could see your interest waned my dear, She wanted Mary Poppins and I took her to King Lear”, taken from the dreary and repetitive 'Lost In The Post', are heavily laden and smarmy.

Meanwhile the sixth form humour works in two directions. On the one hand, all their love stories are filtered through a hackneyed vision of school-life that wanes, all fear of women and intimidation at the hands of older cigarette smoking boys - witness the over-worked lyric “I don’t even know the location of the bike shed”. Elsewhere it is far more charming, with a nod to peculiar musical predilections. Anyone who knows and loves their work will appreciate the joy of the paradox inherent in the title of 'Let’s Dance To Joy Division', while 'Dr Susan Mattox PHD' is a jolly romp around questions of inferiority imposed by the new hierarchies of university life.

If you can stand, and even enjoy, the unstoppable and affected quality of the ‘lad’ in Matthew Murphy’s ubiquitous vocal then you have passed the biggest hurdle to liking this band. Given that The Wombats have built their reputation on popular singles, an album so full of consistency is admirable. However, whether one wants to ingest a consistent barrage of such unremitting pop enthusiasm is a different question.

Released 5th November 2007 by 14th Floor Records.

Written by Huw Green.