Tiny Dancers - 'Lions And Tigers And Lions' (Parlophone) Released 27/11/06

Quite where Sheffield's Tiny Dancers are coming from is any one's guess, and they don't seem overly sure themselves.  Invoking the totemic power of classic Britrock by drafting uberproducer John Leckie in for this their debut EP, while wrapping it in a cover that evokes the whacked out genre-defying genius of early Beta Band, 'Lion And Tigers And Lions' is either going to be the most inventive thing to have landed at Gigwise HQ or a shocking disappointment.  Unfortunately, at least partly due to those giant touchstones, it's the latter.  For all their talk of "unpigeonholable uniqueness" - that's the wonderful world of PR for you - Tiny Dancers ply an amiable line in generic and forgettable countrified indie jangle - think The Zutons with an artificially inflated sense of self-importance but without the eminently hummable tunes.  Only on the epic rumbling Bunnymen-inflected opener '20 To 9' do they ever come close to delivering, but, ultimately it's too little too early.