No ANBAD Donkey Antics this week. There just wasn’t time. Instead, here is a ‘greatest hits’ blast-from-the-past picture.

A poor show, yes – but here’s four genuinely fabulous bands to compensate, one of whom sounds a bit like The Killers. Of course, being the consummate professional, I will entirely gloss over such a glaringly glib comparison.

FIRST! Wild Party sound a bit like The Killers. This is worth getting out of the way right at the beginning, because it’ll be the observation everyone makes. A fairer assessment is that they sound like what The Killers would sound like if they were, you know, good.

It’s not singer L. Kreifels’ fault that he sounds like Brandon Flowers. Don’t judge him. And don’t let this blind the fact that Wild Party are a throbbingly exciting and exhilarating band, and that Take My Advice, amazingly, is scheduled to be released as a B-side. Superb, thrilling stuff, on the basis of which they’ll be huge.

SECOND! Ivan Moult marks the transition from bombast to the deliberate absence of it. When I hear songs this breathy and slight, I wonder what would happen if the singer was exposed to the epic ridiculousness of, say, a Kiss concert. I imagine instant molecular dissolution. Here, Ivan has made low-key, high-impact acoustic songs that barely exist, but you’ll be glad they do. Lovely.

THIRD! His Majesty – There’s something both pleasant and ludicrous about His Majesty, a band who are apparently based in two French cities and one British one, which must make the band practice meet-ups interesting, or at least exhausting.His Majesty make deliciously skewed synth-pop, with the kind of flippancy that only Gallic bands every really get right. Good stuff.

FOURTH! There wasn’t time for four, after all. As previously mentioned – a poor show. Apologies. Normal service resumed next week!