Frankie & The Heartstrings' Decency is a love letter to their people

After their single "Hunger" propelled the band into the limelight, as is sadly the case with the majority of acts based in the North East of England - neglected purely because industry 'experts' (for politeness sake) think of the North only as Manchester - the road to success has been longer than it should be. Hats off, then, to Frankie and the boys for and ploughing through the drudgery of indifference to get to album number three.

The opening of their own record store in 2013, Pop Recs Ltd, has done wonders for the region, attracting acts such as James Bay, The Cribs and The Vaccines to name a few. It's also given the community a chance to engage with the band on a much more personal level, and when you listen to their records, you get the impression that this is why Frankie & The Heartstrings still make music; solely for their fans.

Though the band have drafted in The Futureheads' guitarist Ross Millard, following the departure of Mick Ross, they haven't really taken a new direction with regards to the songwriting on Decency. "Think Yourself Lucky", and "Save It For Tonight" could have easily been tracks on their debut Hunger (2011), or indeed their second record, The Days Run Away (2013). It feels like a band struggling to escape the Noughties. "Money", with its sprightly horn refrains, doffs a cap to "Motorcycle" by The Rumble Strips back in 2006, "Balconette" could have been a Maximo Park number circa A Certain Trigger (2005), and "Not For Pleasure" would've sounded great accompanying Soccer AM's Goal of the Month section with its four-to-the floor beat and choppy guitars.

There are standouts though, particularly "Hate Me Like You Used To" with its great chorus, invogoratingly distorted guitar melodies and the spaciousness created by the spread of instrumentation courtesy of Hookworms member and producer, MJ.

Yet apart from that, it's difficult to say much more about the LP that couldn't have been said about either of its predecessors. It's comforting however to know that, while Decency mightn't do a great job of recruiting new admirers, Frankie and the Heartstrings fans are many, and will find enough to love here.