Panned, stereo-tastic riffing heralds the arrival of another tasty, old-skool power pop goodie from semi-NYC residents THE FIVE O'CLOCK HEROES and new single "White Girls." However, this time there's a funkier spring than usual in the FOC boys step, drummer Patrick Fowler rides his hi-hat like Clem Burke and late-70s Stones and The Knack all come rushing to mind. In fact, the only down side your reviewer can detect is that the "white girls" in the chorus sounds horribly close to the "wild boys" in the Duran Duran hit of the same title. But let's, er, gloss over that as soon as humanly possible, eh?
Flip "Skin Deep" rasps into life with percussive, indie-Bo Diddley guitar scraping before giving way to another flamboyant, charismatic power pop outing. This time the bounce is even more prevalent than before, but thankfully they stop short of Ska. It's instantly catchy, has great Mick Jones-style "whoa-oh-oh"s at the chorus and once again serves notice that (with the possible exception of the cruelly under-rated Needles - where are you, lads?) there's no-one doing this no-nonsense pop malarkey quite so well just now.
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