It's understandable if you don't believe such a thing exists, but in new album How I Wasted My Youth, Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring have delivered that rarest of rare commodities; an album of lightweight, meandering pop music that actually makes for thoroughly engaging listening from start to finish.

While the hopefully-titled 'New Favourite Band' might be a slight overstatement of affairs, it's a good example of exactly what they do best: pop music of the highest order, filled to the seams with saccharine backing vocals, lilting bells and acoustics and memorable choruses. It's a theme that permeates through the shimmeringly infectious 'A Question of Trust' and 'St. Cecilia', with the latter proving particularly effective at combining their knack for killer choruses with a slightly meatier backing. Meanwhile, opener 'Take Your Own Good Advice' is a slow-burning gem that eventually delivers on its early promise, and 'The End' provides a smooth, country-tinged curtain call.

While this is normally the sort of thing that lands so squarely in the middle of the road it fails to generate either damning criticism or effusive praise, Their Hearts Were Full of Spring have made an eminently relaxing, accessible record that is at the same time genuinely exciting listening. It's a rare skill, and one to cherish.

Rating: 4/5 by Mitch Bain

Tracklisting

1. Take Your Own Good Advice
2. A Question of Trust
3. In The Future Everything Will Be Made Of Light
4. New Favourite Band
5. Interlude
6. Record Breaker
7. Fire Eyes
8. I Saw The Lights Go Out
9. A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away
10. St. Cecilia
11. All My Troubles Stemmed From There
12. My Big Test
13. The End

Further links

Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring on Myspace

Poptastic janglers Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring on MySpace