It’s always good to see a band marching to the beat of its own drum, and Trudy and the Romance are such a band, managing to cross Libertines and Metronomy, and coming up with something new.

We say the Libs because TatR have something of that band’s ramshackle charm, combined with a flavouring of the off-kilter sound of Metronomy, except nothing is electronic. There’s a bit of Divine Comedy about it, too. The singer caresses the words — closely approximating drunken mumbling — with varying degrees of success at holding an actual tune. Behind him are rascally angels making attempts at a heavenly chorus.

Opener Seashore Overture opens with fake falsetto and wonky Metronomy-style organ but it’s a short taster for the first song, Twist It, Shake It, Rock and Roll whose opening line is the promising “Are you sure she’s not the son of a whore?” The song is almost a pastiche of a 50s doo wop love song — imagine Pete Doherty covering The Four Seasons and you’re kind of there.

Junkyard Cat gives the Beach Boys the Trudy And The Romance treatment, just more drunk on Liverpool docks than Cali surfing. Standout is Is There A Place I Can Go, which encapsulates the full sound of the band.

Bottom line: it’s different and at worst it’s not bad; at least it’s different. Even the sternest critic will fall for its vaudevillian charms in at least one place, though it’s equally possibly that indifference is not an option, and people will either hate or it find it appealing.

Buy from the band:

http://www.trudymylove.com/

Or the junkyard of unpaid taxes