Two Day Rule are a Bristol boy/girl quartet who have extracted their moniker from Doug Liman's fine film "Swingers", and "Had A Good Thing" is their debut single. It's punky bubblegum pop, a remake of "Dead Ringer For Love" for Just Seventeen readers who wouldn't mind getting some facial jewellery installed if only their parents would let them. And co-vocalist Neil Murray sounds unnervingly like Phil Lynott's Parson from Jeff Wayne's musical version of "The War Of The Worlds". The main feature is presented in two different versions, although you'd probably need more sophisticated measuring apparatus than I have access to to determine where the changes have been made (the album version is nearly a minute longer, whilst sounding almost exactly the same), and there's a third track, "Space", which is more of the same without being as good.

TWO DAY RULE When You're Ready (Sugarshack)

Two Day Rule's debut album mines an identical furrow to their recent single "Had A Good Thing", being noisy punk/ska with a heart of gold and the lyrical concerns of a Just Seventeen reader, a constant stream of stuff about mild relationship breakdowns, like The Wedding Present for tweenagers. (Although "About A Boy" seems to be a caustic swipe at a Kurt Cobain/Thom Yorke-type gloom-mongerer.) This kind of music usually appals my grown-up sensibilities - in fact, in desperate need of a reality-checking second opinion I passed the album around in work and it was returned with comments like "Makes Green Day look like world-beaters!" - but over the course of the last few of the many spins it has received I find myself growing strangely fond of "When You're Ready"…in the same way that you might be 'fond' of a barmy old relative. Nevertheless, when I've finished typing it will be consigned to my CD rack, never to return, hopefully meaning I won't ever have to endure the risible faux-Americanisms of "Johnny & Loretta" again. Still, given the current resurgence of No Doubt, to whom several commentators have likened Two Day Rule, you never know.

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