Lovvers are four lads from Nottingham signed to Wichita Recordings, last year they released an excellent hype-worthy EP called Think, which sounded Stooges-y and garage rock-y, with a modern noisy pop aesthetic. They quite easily slot next to other like-minded (mostly North American) bands, such as Cheap Time, King Khan, Thomas Function and (fellow Brits) Black Time. With their debut album OCD Go Go Go Girls the harsh sharp punk edge of the EP has been dulled somewhat, whilst the carefree classic 60s garage rock, and touches of post-punk, have been emphasized.The album is recorded with the typical lack of detail and fuzz you might expect, but of special note are the vocals, which have been completely distorted to the point of unintelligibility. Think Lightning Bolt. Now, that might stand in the way of your enjoyment of this album, but if it does then it’s a big shame, because it’s a ripper.For four shining songs Lovvers strike gold, and it all comes in the middle of the album. With ‘100 Flowers’ they combine a bit of prickly droning with a pure fun-times rave-up of a riff, switching effectively from freewheeling and fun when it cuts loose, to foreboding when it builds up. ‘Golden Bars Blue’ is just guitar and voice, if you added drums and bass it would be a typical song, if somewhat slower, and if you made the vocals clearer it would be the catchiest, and possibly best, of the album. As it is, ‘Axtxtxixtxuxdxe’ is the best song on the album, a dumb simple catchy riff and melody that doesn’t need the vocals to be clear to be awesome, it’s just like a guitar and voice going for a tumble down a big hill, whilst the drum kit clatters down some nearby stairs. Closing up this connect four of brilliance is ‘Alone With A Girl’, you can smell the engine oil on this one, a great riff played by one guitar that’s then echoed by an over-revved one. Some ‘na-na-na-na’s from the lead vocal, well-utilized ‘wooo-ooooo’s from the backing vocals and a great organ piss-up near the end are the finishing touches.The first and last few songs here just fall short in some ways, not reaching the same standard as that midfield quartet. They can be perfectly fine Garage Rock gravel, ‘Four Count’ is a good-natured blast of fun, or Post-Punk tinged like ‘Wild Smiles’ which sounds like a demo for Real Life-era Magazine, a straight and compact punky rattler with some very vague kraut-ness. But those great songs I talked about earlier are straight-up nuggets, with great hooks and bundles of personality. The first song of any real identity is the fourth track and first single ‘OCD Go Go Girls’ so it takes a while to get going, and when you get to ‘D. Boon’ on the other side, the excitement and flow of the album is a little lost (I was especially looking forward to ‘D. Boon’, but the instrumental track fails to live up to it’s name). There is a difference in sound from the EP, which as I’ve said was a lot harder edged, the album is a bit flat and less aggressive in comparison. And that’s fine because they’re obviously going for a different feel (party-time, get drunk and DANCE!) but there isn’t quite enough on show here to make that convincing across the whole album. 75%Lovvers on MySpace