AMSTRONG Everyone Is A Poet These Days (Clearspot)
Amstrong are a Danish quintet, and the single "Everyone Is A Poet These Days" presages their imminent second album, "Hot Water Music" (which lifts its title from a Charles Bukowski novel - is it me, or is Bukowski enjoying a long-deserved rehabilitation in hip circles at the moment?). Their music exists somewhere in the space between The Cardigans and early Talking Heads, sad-eyed pop tunes coursing with barely-concealed pain and paranoia, maybe a little like dEUS without the comedy. "Everyone Is A Poet These Days" is awkward and elliptical enough to be interesting, but doesn't quite make me hold out for great things to come.