Battle - Paper Street

There's something going on in the good neighbourhood of Paper Street. The surface of it is begging anonymity, the tawdry hooks and chord patterns are nothing original and the vocals at first jar with Jason Bavanandan's peculiarly fluctuating delivery. But it's in this voice that the track starts to pull you in. There's a knowing twinkle of intelligence behind the lyrics, breathing allegory and absurdity into the mix with strong echoes of Jarvis Cocker blooming life into the track. Beyond Bavanandan, there's an energy of deft harmonising which pushes a ten-a-penny indie track above the norm, a feat alone which shows there's plenty fight about Battle. [Jamie Borthwick]