Pigeon Detectives: 'This Is An Emergency'

When The Pigeon Detectives proclaimed last week that they'd already written their third album, it was rightly viewed as an unusual way of promoting their sophomore release. Thinking about it, this odd declaration could mean one of two things: a) The Pigeon Detectives are an ambitious group of lads who are confident that people will still care about them in a year's time, or b) The Pigeon Detectives don't do quality control and are happy to knock out half-baked indie-pop tunes when the fancy takes them.

New single 'This Is An Emergency' positions the band somewhere between the two posts. Featuring spikier riffs and beefier guitars than anything on their Wait For Me debut, it's undoubtedly a huge step forward for the group. Renowned knob-twiddler Stephen Street has made the Leeds rockers into a wide-screen rock act, so where they once came across puny and amateurish, they now sound muscular and stadium-bound. The negative? Well, the lyrics are hardly inspirational and the group's fondness for a Kaisers-lite shouty chorus hasn't disappeared either. Despite these obvious faults, this is still an intriguing taster for album number two.