Extradition Order's debut album Since the Bomb Dropped reminds me a bit of the Clash's 1980 triple-album Sandinista! Like that record, the album is hugely varied in style, rough round the edges. Occasionally, the vocals are reminiscent of Mr Strummer's coarse style, too. This is a recklessly ambitious debut which attempts lo-fi acoustic guitars and whistling with synthesisers stuck on the end ('Precious Home'), a plodding, waltz-like tune (closer 'Marriage'), and a semi-progressive song with jucious cyclic piano and organ ('The Wheel').Extradition Order's music occupies a space somewhere along the folk/rock axis, but as I've tried to get across, they move around in that space very freely. This versatility is endearing on one level - but a little frustrating on another, in a sense that Since the Bomb Dropped keeps you thinking that it would be a better album if it reined itself in a little bit more. It's always tempting to feel that way about albums that vary wildly in style (The Beatles, Sandinista!, Know Your Enemy etc) but I think it's obviously easier to get away with it if the varied styles are tempered by consistently strong songwriting. On their debut album, attempting to pull this off is a pretty risky strategy for this band.Unlike a lot of these kinds of albums though, the problem is not consistency. The quality of these decidedly off-kilter songs is fairly consistent, but it's consistently average. Occasionally the odd moment stands out, usually an interesting instrumental turn, but no songs are outstanding. The vocals frequently stray a little to the wrong side of annoying, which can sometimes further limit the appeal of this music. The arrangements and composition sometimes feel a bit haphazard, meaning that the songs rarely achieve the punch that they ought to.Burgeoning with interesting instruments and varied styles, Since the Bomb Dropped is an album which aims high, but is too often hamstrung by its own ambition, hoisted by its own petard. Far from bad, it is instead a listenable, but ultimately fairly forgettable and unremarkable set of songs.Extradition Order on MySpace