The Chapman Family

Burn Your Town PIAS/ Electric Toaster**

The Chapman Family make a big deal about "sounding different". Their musical manifesto pledges to discard the banal and inject new life into the UK's fading punk-rock scene. It's a pity, then, that their debut doesn't live up to such grand claims. The northern quartet deal in sombre tunes laced with a fierce rawness and shrouded in a tempest of guitar riffs, but, at best, they sound like a heavier Futureheads (the accent doesn't help) or a less melodic Glasvegas. Singer Kingsley Chapman knows how to snarl like a disgruntled Dave Gahan, but these 10 tracks are far too similar in tone and tempo to sustain momentum across 48 minutes. Burn Your Townis an album that smoulders when it could have blazed, with songs that merely meander loudly and aimlessly. See myspace.com/thechapman family

Download tracks: Sound of the Radio, All Fall