Capital Of Iceland is a bawdy and frenzied introduction into the world of Sweet Sweet Lies. It blasts out as to stifle any notion that the band are folksy mommy's boys like Mumford And Sons.
The song is a bitter, twisted rant about violently rejecting one lover and dreaming of a perfect replacement who is smart enough to know where Rekjavik is and plays guitar "like Johnny Cash and Johnny Marr".
This is followed by the equally fired-up Jacques Brel-style ode to an Overrated Girlfriend who remains the object of affection despite the fact that "she turns me on then kicks me out, spits and swears and lies and shouts".
These two tracks immediately establish the band's speciality for obsessive and vaguely unhinged songs about love and sex that are part amorous, part venomous.
The wit is sharp and dry with a strong undercurrent of pathological venom beneath the urbane exterior.
Some lines like "I haven't got the patience to sweep you off your feet" (Lady Deceit) are pure Morrissey as is Von Tropp's identification of himself as "a fop, a cad and a fool", a line is from the album's centrepiece, and first single, is No-one Will Love You (Like I Do).
The latter is rendered as a chamber pop soundtrack to tea dance on the excellent video that accompanies it. Aside from The Smiths, this song also owes a debt to Neil Hanson and The Divine Comedy.
The six-piece band are ex-students of BIMM(Brighton Institute of Modern Music) and graduates of the school for disillusioned romantics led by two singer-songwriters / guitarists Dominic Von Trapp and Michael Hayes.
They dress for business (or perhaps a wedding) with sober suits, ties and waistcoats. One publicity shot has them posing at Brighton Bowling Club; a kind of prim south coast alternative to Salford Lads Club.
They cultivate an image of decadent literates to emphasise how love is a "sacred curse" (Valentine) and while their wordplay is inventive and entertaining there is a tendency to exaggerate when understatement would be more effective.
At the end of Too Drunk To Love, the lyric become "too drunk to fuck", a change that seems crude and out of place. Similarly weaker tunes like the tale of a split personality Nathaniel & Bartholomew don't quite nail the melodramatic detachment needed.
They are at their best when the heartache and bitterness is heavily tinged with irony as on The Day I Change ("I could never be the man of your dreams") or Lizbeth Blue ("I can't be rational when I'm hurting"). On songs like these they are the equal of other experts in this field like Stephen Merritt or Jarvis Cocker .
This is a confident but flawed album. They need more variety in subject matter but Sweet Sweet Lies have the swagger, the songs and the style to make it big.
