Younger Younger 28s

'Soap', measured against the two albums it most resembles, seems destined either to tower over an era in the manner of the Human League's Dare, or to vanish into the terminal obscurity enjoyed by Denim's Back In Denim. Either way, Soap is something of a classic. Musically, Younger Younger 28s are thieves blessed with consummate style: a game of spot-the-reference played with this dizzyingly post-modern record will end with several sheets of paper filled with names including Soft Cell, Prince, Chic, the Shangri-Las, Kenickie, ABC, Pulp and the Ronettes. Lyrically, frontman Joe Northern--whose gruff baritone is neatly counterpointed by the sweetly tawdry backing vocals of Liz and Andie--obsesses about the sort of people whose lives are regularly scrutinised in docu-soaps shown after midnight, and often writes, with richly endearing incongruity, from a female perspective: "Sugar Sweet Dreams", "Teenage Mum" and "Julie" are all studies of hopeless dreams of escape from squalor. Soap is a rollercoaster of styles and moods that, appropriately, is largely set to music that sounds like it was made to be played in fairgrounds. It ends with a startlingly effective reading of "Inbetween Days", the Cure's peerless elegy to ennui. Quite how, or if, Younger Younger 28s are ever going to follow this is anyone's guess, but it hardly matters. --Andrew Mueller - The Independent