Aw yeah, vintage Cheap Girls. I was lucky enough to see these guys last year with The Bouncing Souls in Glasgow and that was it, I was in love. With that in mind, I’m reviewing from one cold listen to try to mitigate my fanboy status a bit!

Opening with the fantastic ‘Slow Nod’, which sounds like equal parts Interpol and The Ergs! (I know!), Famous Graves is a brilliant record. There are shades of England’s almighty Great Cynics in here as well as Modern Baseball, Johnny Cash, R.E.M., Springsteen and even Dave Hause. It’s a close to perfect half hour/forty minutes and probably one of the only records the I NEED TO BUY this year. Lyrically, it’s fantastic, while containing some heavy themes (a la the better Alkaline Trio lyrics of old), it’s still an uplifting experience overall.

Stand out tracks include ‘Amazing Grace’, ‘Man In Question’ and the aforementioned ‘Slow Nod’. Slightly fillery but not at all unworthy is ‘Short Cut Days’.

Not their best but it stands against the rest no qualifications needed! I urge you to buy this as it will sound so good on an LP! Top stuff from top lads.

Unlike most of the stuff I review for SBD you can buy this in shops (remember them?) and on the internet at loads of places.

– Andy Chainsaw