28 Costumes - ‘Inside/Outside’ (Spank Records) Released 06/03/06

Scouse anti-scenesters 28 Costumes return after their acclaimed ‘Fake Death Experience’ album with a reminder that guitar pop doesn’t have to be in tight jeans and skinny ties for it to do what it’s meant to do:rock. ‘Inside/Outside’ manages to squeeze Half Man Half Biscuit raggedy-arsedness, Will Sergeant’s psychedelic guitar lines, a barber-shop quartet accapella and a punk pop coda into four minutes of sonic ticklishness. Another triumph for indie, then, and proof that there’s always a place amongst the preeners and the poseurs for the misfits and the mavericks. Nice comic book-style sleeve too.