>Posturing and rock go hand-in-hand. This self-awareness often results in musical bombast partnered with hollow and blustering lyrics. After a while, some bands only seek to consolidate their public image, their music becoming a tick-box exercises in retreading the inevitable. It’s partly this laziness that gives new bands an allure – music made by people who don’t have personal masseurs (yet).

Today’s New Band are The Molotovs, and their songs are thick with weary recognition of life’s frustrations. They don’t pose or worry about their appearance as they’re too busy turning an anglepoise lamp onto themselves and delving inside their own neuroses. Flowers is a decidedly jaunty romp, with fiddly guitars and sax, though the lyrics lament – “I bought you some flowers, was that not enough? Paperback novels taught you to bluff.” This conflict between big, brash and uplifting tunes and the mournful lyrics reoccurs in One Up On Me, which, whilst sporting a sprightly melody, is drenched in a sombre listlessness.

None of this means that their music is a Radiohead-in-their-most-dour-moments drag – The Molotovs‘ songs are an upbeat treat in many ways. Their vocal acknowledgement is just that not everything is a bowl of cherries, a rare display of pragmatism in rock, I suppose. And anyway, any band that is happy to propel as un-rock ‘n’ roll an instrument as the accordion to the forefront of their songs is all right by me. Their songs are right here!