The View - 'Bread and Circuses' (1965 Records) Released: 14/03/2011

If you were to look up the phrase “victims of their own success” in any good picture dictionary then chances are you’ll find four Scotsmen staring right back out at you from an appropriately dishevelled page.

Having ridden to post-Libertines success with the help of a few snappy indie-pop singles written in a style not at all dissimilar to The Libertines, The View were subsequently derided for walking through an open door marked “loadsa cash lies this way”. That’s not to say that this four piece didn’t have a few tunes up their sleeves or even that their much maligned second album, ‘Which Bitch?’, wasn’t a half decent effort which broadened a Kyle Falconer’s hooky palette in a more ragged bent.

So what has changed since that underachieving second record?

Well not much and to be frank nothing really needed to. Falconer and his Dundee-born brethren may not be musical revolutionaries but they certainly know how to mine their strengths in crafting catchy little ditties. Opening track and lead single ‘Grace’ sets the tone, if not a continuing high standard, for the rest of ‘Bread and Circuses’ with its heady blend of T-Rex riffs and a simple sing-along chorus.

The less successful ‘Girl’ is still a slouching ska-tinged ray of sunshine, whilst ‘Life’ treads a tad heavily on the toes of ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger'. It might be damning ‘Bread and Circuses’ with faint praise to say that it meets a set of admittedly low expectations however, to disregard this album out of hand is to forget that sometimes music can be fun without being innovative.

“It’s just a case of tragic magic, when you can’t remember feeling fantastic,” sings Falconer on the duff but loveable ‘Tragic Magic’ and, in a way, that line is all you need to know of The View’s third album to decide whether it is worth your time or not.

Falconer is certainly no Morrissey and that Mercury Prize will probably wait another year, yet there is still room enough in this world for The View.