Like a lot of people, I have an extremely complex relationship with guitar rock.

I suspect there are as many – if not more – who think that everything is just hunky-dory at the moment, and they, of course, are the fans for whom the music was created in the first place.

But I suspect that those of us who view today’s rock offerings with suspicion may, like me, have fallen in and out of love with guitar pop a few times; having possibly grown up in the 90’s, 70’s or 60’s when that music was intermittently at it’s glorious peak.

My/Our main gripe is that the fabled ‘gang against the world’ spirit of rock is largely absent today, where the majority of big rock bands are as safe as a Volvo wrapped in cotton wool.

Where’s the risk? The derring-do? The simple, thrilling desire to make a right old racket, sweat a bit and shag a long route around Europe? Perhaps the demand simply isn’t there any more.

If this theory isn’t a load of old hokum – and that is always a strong  probability on ANBAD – then Ghost Animal could be viewed as a throwback to headier times.

You’ll recognise the pang of exhilaration that you’ve always lusted after in the chorus of Single Man, as the vocals spike breathlessly through the dizzying blitz of guitar fuzz and crackling drums.

Ghost Animal are indeed doing it the old way: chucking caution wind-wards, and teasing the balance between pure noise and blissful melody. They’re not throw-backs. They’re not old-fashioned, re-treads or artistically bankrupt. (You’re thinking of Beady Eye again).

Instead, they’re just doing what bands have done for years: make a load of noise for the sake of making noise – and then making sure it sounds beautiful. Great.

MORE: myspace.com/ghostanimal

TODAY’S BONUS BAND: Cosmo’s Academy // FIVE WORD REVIEW: Good-time, rousing, confusion-pop.