Granted – Crackout may not be the most awe-invoking, inspiring band in the world. Over and over again I hear them categorised as just another boring, unoriginal punk-rock outfit... and maybe to a certain extent, this is true. But, you have to credit the band, although possibly slightly unoriginal; what Crackout do, they do DAMN well. And that is to create chirpy, up-beat music that, if you’re having a bad day really does make you want to slap the pesky bastard that put it on, but if you’re feeling good, is guaranteed to have you jumping around the room, giving that air guitar some good old fashioned punk-rock welly…

Crackout seem to have taken a pretty simplistic attitude to recording this album; free of any pretentiously frivolous guitar effects and never tiring of the trusty old soft-loud song composition, yet the bands obvious enthusiasm for the music, which oozes from every metaphoric pore of each track, ensures that the album refrains from becoming boring and tedious.

If raw, hyperactive, bouncy guitar riffs butter your bread, I think it’d be pretty difficult to find an album that fits the criteria more so this! 12 exuberant tracks that seem to take their influences from a diversity of bands – from Blink 182 and Feeder to The Cure. The album includes the recent debut single “You Dumb Fuck” and a select few old EP favourites, all rounded off with, in my opinion at least, the ‘crème de la crème’ – “Fairytale Nothing”; a track which truly demonstrates what this modest brit-rock trio are capable of – a real sign of greater things to come.

A gut-wrenching, wrist-slittingly deep and complicated offering; this is not… But if you’re just as satisfied with a selection of catchy, honest, no-frills tunes, you could do a lot worse than to give ‘This Is Really Neat’ a go!