The Strypes - Little Victories, album review: 'signs of evolution'

When The Strypes turned up a couple of years ago – four Irish teenagers with Yardbirds hair and studied R&B poses – they were greeted a bit like Matisse, the performing dog from Britain’s Got Talent.

Elton John marvelled at their precocity. How could ones so young produce sounds so faithful? Surely, it’s not that hard when all the Bo Diddley songs are at your fingertips online.

Still, if their debut, Snapshot, was a little too retro for its own good, there are signs of evolution. Eighty-Four recalls the Arctic Monkeys’ breakneck social observation, Cruel Brunette has shades of early Jam, while the harpsichord on (I Wanna Be Your) Everyday and references to village greens suggest they’ve been listening to the Kinks too – though somehow missing Ray Davies’s subtlety or wit.

As a band, they create a furious teenage riot, timeless in its way. But it’s all a little literal. As Keith Richards once observed, it’s easy to do the rock part – much harder to do the roll.

(Virgin EMI)