Frankie & The Heartstrings

Hailing from former hot bed of British pop, Sunderland, Frankie and the Heartstrings bring a classic British sound to their own vision of what indie should be. Sounding something like Orange Juice (no surprise then that Edwyn Collins produced this) with a flair for the dramatic, Frankie will pull and potentially yank out your heartstrings in an effort to get you to listen. And you should listen, because this is one heck of a band that has tapped into 80's British pop and given it a modern spin that sounds completely fresh.

Mixing jangly and spiky guitars, with well enunciated vocals, punk funk drums, and witty lyricism Hunger is proper indie the finest tradition. Perhaps a bit like fellow Sunderlander's The Futureheads but with a bit more twang than punk, Frankie and the Heartstrings embrace that Orange Juice vibe and even find room to mix in a bit of rockabilly for good measure. The end result of all this is Hunger being ridiculously danceable, incredibly fetching, and rather great.

It may have taken forever for Frankie and the Heartstrings to come to the states, but it's been well worth the wait. Hunger is a fantastically strong debut whose British influences power this record and steer it to pop Babylon in fine fashion. It's so good that it's the sort of thing you need more of...it's the kind of record that will leave you hunger(ing) for more.