Killer Sounds Warner **

It didn't take long for the name Hard-Fi to become a byword for all that was ugly about bloke-oriented indie rock. Big guitars, booming drums, sloganeering lyrics and choruses designed for Soccer AM montages: the Londoners had it all. It came as some surprise, then, when the quartet's second release was a refreshing change of direction, but their third doesn't demonstrate the same resourcefulness. Sure, the radio-friendly pop beats of

Stay Alive

, or the less brash

Stop

, are perfectly adequate, but Richard Archer's thinly-veiled Bernard Sumner impression is more amusing than admirable on the New Order-aping

Fire in the House

. His lyrics need some revision, too: did the clunky Kasabianesque swagger of

Feels Good

really just rhyme "brain" with "cocaine" and "insane" and "propane"? You probably won't hear a more drearily predictable album all year. See hard-fi.com

Download tracks: Stop, Stay Alive