The Lovely Eggs – This Is Our Nowhere

Lancaster’s finest return with a fourth album of schizoid odd-pop – the titular ‘nowhere’ presumably referring to the small town they call home, if not the niche they’ve carved out within the UK’s DIY indie scene. Northern vowels and grunge-inflected fuzz are piled on top of shonkily pretty melodies, channelling Nirvana and L7 before dropping into wide-eyed wonder (à la Kimya Dawson) and back again. Nifty.

Fine as the tunes are, however, it’s the words that’ll draw you in. Whether flying the flag for “big teeth” (Music) or simply snarking about cold-call salesmen (The Investment), there’s a slice-of-life realism at the heart of Holly Ross’ observations, albeit one battered into shape by the band's singularly oddball worldview (think Frank Sidebottom or band buddy John Shuttleworth, only more so).

Slinking Of The Strange sees them toying with bigger questions of consciousness and identity, but even these are filtered through idiosyncratic laffs’n’yucks, ensuring that you'll either get The Lovely Eggs or you won't. Those who do will be charmed and delighted. [Will Fitzpatrick]