Making up for lost time

They take their time in Tennessee. Fresh (but not that fresh) from the birthplace of popular music, The Features have been together since 1997. This year, they finally roused themselves into releasing their effervescent debut album, Exhibit A, which builds upon the thrill and polish of Kaiser Chiefs and The Killers.

Surprisingly, perhaps, the quartet are no slugabeds in the flesh. Instead, their urgency suggested a desperation to make up for lost time. Tellingly, eight years of dithering has left them supertight, with Parrish Yaw's rich, Sparksian keyboards joyfully complementing Matthew Pelham's punk howl.

As a frontman, Pelham was too gauche to be wholly convincing and he seemed genuinely shocked when the fervid, mostly female, audience accompanied him on album track Exorcising Demons. Yet, once he began to sing, he was transformed into a floppy-haired rock god.

Each song, from the heroic Me And The Skirts to the staccato new single The Way It's Meant To Be was packed with pop hooks, manly keyboards and deft twists and turns.

However, everything was eclipsed by Thursday a comforting mini-symphony inexplicably omitted from Exhibit A. It touched the hem of greatness and all The Features need now is to start selling records...

The Features