Review of Agent Blue's CD "A Stolen Honda Vision"

Agent Blue: A Stolen Honda Vision

It's been a strange few years for Potteries punkers Agent Blue since they first came bounding over the horizon some three years ago. In that time, they've got a major label deal only to promptly get exiled back to the minors as their paymeisters at Universal clearly had no idea how to market the band and paid the price with commercial underachievement (d'oh!), received endorsements from... erm, Pete Doherty and that berk from the Others (even bigger d'oh!) and picked up some pretty merciless slaggings on both this here website and Sandman, the vitriol of which suggested that the writers responsible held a venom for the band which extended way beyond a mere dislike of their music.

But they may yet have the last laugh on the sourpusses - now back on Fierce Panda, the label they signed to originally, "Stolen Honda Vision" is one of the more original debuts of recent months, certainly far better than the (spit!) Arctic Monkeys' turgid new offering. Although it's easy to see how some near-sighted people might have lumped them in with the Futureheads wannabes, there's an aggression in their music which marks them out from the crowd as evidenced in the feral "Snowhill", "New School Devil" and the still-fantastic "Sex, Drugs And Rocks Through Your Window". Elsewhere, "Crossbreed" sounds like Oasis' "Columbia" with a rocket up its arse and the hypnotic groove of "Gear" could almost be the Music if you squint a bit. It's not quite faultless - Agent Blue still bear the hallmarks of being a band who are still a bit rough around the edges. But, y'know, that's okay - this IS a debut album after all. And, dare I say it, a pretty damn promising one. Universal should be kicking themselves.

• www.agent-blue.co.uk

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