Right, like an awkward kiss on a first date, let’s get it out of the way: yes, The Stands sound a little like The Byrds. Okay? Oh and they also sound a little like The Band and early-sixties Beatles and Bob Dylan and Neil Young and frankly every other bugger who was any good. 
     
OK, now that is done, let’s talk about now, because 'Horse Fabulous' is a great record; a gorgeous, energetic, passionate rush of melodies and harmonies written for the sybaritic summer days yet to come. Yes, okay, the musical influences swim close the surface, but the album nonetheless sounds organic, complete and fresh. This is no cut and paste job, with the group borrowing heavily from their heroes and throwing it all together in the futile hope that it will sound great. No, the songs feel lived-in and well-travelled like a pair of dirty, whiskey-stained yet much-loved denims.

Bizarrely, The Stands seem to have been lumped into the dreadfully named, already hackneyed, ‘cosmic-scouse’ scene, but they are anything but. Certainly, the musical heritage of their hometown can be heard, but it is closer to the raw energy of Merseybeat than any of The Coral’s psychedelic wanderings. Indeed, songs like ‘Soon Come’ and ‘Do It Like You like’ have a heady, almost amphetamine-like urgency, suggesting that the band have drawn their inspiration from something more vital than sitting around smoking dope, chomping on mushrooms and listening to Captain Beefheart.

‘I Will Journey Home’ is a massive disappointment…spring is barely over, yet you will be hard pressed to find a lovelier two minutes all year. Oh the anti-climax! If you don’t start to choke on the lump in your throat as singer/songwriter Howie Payne sings, “my love, she sleeps somewhere alone” then it’s time to check your own pulse and call the ambulance. Likewise, if ‘When The Night Falls In’ doesn’t get the heart beating, then music was never gonna save you in the first place. “Ahh…if you were here nothing could matter, how long do I have to keep holding on?” Payne rasps in his Kelly Jones/John Lennon voice, and you know that you already have one of the finest pop moments of the summer.

 Whether this album manages to crow-bar it’s way into the pantheon of great indie-rock records (‘Bandwagonesque’, ‘The Coral’ or ‘The La’s’ ) or burns and dies in a single summer (‘So Much For The City’) remains to be seen, but for once let’s hope that the Noel Gallagher seal of approval will not be a kiss of death.