Power pop is an odd beast, something that's actually quite hard to do effectively without sounding terribly pompous. On their debut six song EP, Jod just about get it right most of the time, avoiding the bluster that marked their early gigs at the end of last year.

Of the six songs here, the best is `This Time', which starts off with a rustic Fairport Convention-style chorus interrupted by what sounds suspiciously like some crazy old drunk who's wandered in off the street. With it's industrial strength guitars and battle tank bass, it's the closest the band have ever got to pure hardcore. On the opposite end of the spectrum is `Crisis Detail', one of those stadium-sized rousing, lighters-aloft epics with a melancholic mood. It tries to find its feet somewhere between Blur and Radiohead, but tends to lose some of its effectiveness by going on too long; it could easily lose two minutes in the middle and get to the point just as well.

Elsewhere there's the spacious intensity of `Sparks', with its chiming guitars, and the muscular melodic rock of the unfortunately named `Blockage'. `Rush Me Quickly' is a stab at Idlewild-style indie noise while the only really forgettable song is the bluesy `Meddle the Twist'. There's a feeling sometime that Jod are trying to use sheer force to power the songs along, for better or worse, but also there's a feeling of a promising band finding their true space.

Dale Kattack