Frankie & The Heartstrings - Hunger

(Popsex/Wichita Recordings)

This Sunderland quintet are a phenomenal live force; seemingly not content to let their crowds get away with anything less than sweat-soaked, arms-aloft, screech your heart out singing. This infectious energy is captured perfectly on their long-awaited, Edwyn Collins-produced first offering, its ten tracks of fizzing indie pop almost daring you not to bounce along. Hunger is far from simple bombast though, lyrically it’s charmingly literary and hopelessly romantic too; Frankie & co. telling tales of love new, lost and unrequited as visceral riffs and drums rattle around cleverly constructed melodies. An absolute delight of a debut.