And they’re off...raucous, unstructured, and alive, with every shoehorned chaotic breakdown, Race Horses aren’t just sticking two fingers up to much of the indie blandness dogging current label rosters; it’s more of a banana-like grin as tracks like ‘Cake’ bound and gallop with an overwhelming sense of feel good.Swathed in upbeat pop melodies, and ebbing with bright punchy ditties, there’s pomp and a chaotic recklessness that gives Goodbye Falkenberg an infectious vitality.Delightfully, they’re a band who invite all the right comparisons, harking back to some of the finer, if underappreciated, exponents of the guitar-pop 90s. From Supergrass’ likeable ear for a tune to the gleeful absurdity of Space, there’s a wealth of influences pulled in and elasticised, glued together by a playfulness that comes with the kind of uncompromised, innocent satisfaction you get by simply having a good time.Buoyed by horn parps, brass blasts and cheekiness of kid’s TV themes, you’d be given for thinking all the commotion sticks with the absurd, and while tracks like ‘Disco Pig’ ”“ a 40 second excerpt of swine grunts and Balkan accordion ”“ don’t do much to dispel the fun house nature of the album, it’s far from a musical melee without virtue.‘Man In My Mind/In A Party Near You’ starts with a syrupy Gruff Rhys-esque vocal before bursting into the kind of breakneck collapse we’ve long associated with Cumbrian foliage as ‘Scooter’ rollicks along at a Libertines’ pace that once had the nation eating out the palm of their hands. And for many, this is where the paradox will be cruel or kind to Racehorses, because for all the rampant disorder and delight, there’s only so long you can humour a maniac before things get testy. Race Horses’ insistence on breathlessly heading for the finish means the album hurtles along without ever settling, and at no point does ‘Goodbye Falkenberg’ have an obvious pause to take it all in. But when the maniacal vim of a Fuzzy Logic era Super Furries or the husky absurdity of British Sea Power come so deliriously to the fore, it seems a little petty to deny that this anything but a thoroughbred of a debut.

Buy the album on Amazon | [itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/cake/id343597153?uo=4" title="Race_Horses-Goodbye_Falkenberg_(Bonus_Track_Version)_(Album)" text="iTunes"]