"Good at what they do" would seem to be damning with faint praise, but that's essentially what The Answering Machine are. Widely tipped on emergence about three years ago, the Mancunians came across as a northern Strokes with a drum machine. They've got a fully flesh and blood rhythm section now and the production duties of Manics and Idlewild associate Dave Eringa have given the scratchy sound of their singles a full figured overhaul that suits the pop dynamics they aim at. Pop, of course, in the guitar sense. Musically we're very much in the post-Strokes ballpark of art-rock inspired big freewheeling guitar riffs and strident, near-frantic exultations, usually about love lives falling slowly apart, from Martin Colclough. Verse/chorus/verse fare, essentially, and when it works, it works very well. 'Obviously Cold' has a Maccabees-like nervous tension and an enormous hook wrapped around a simple chorus and bass-heavy breakdown. 'It's Over It's Over It's Over' sounds skyscraping without seemingly doing that much different, the mark of a band who've been allowed to build their confidence over time. These songs feel radio ready, with plenty of ooh-ed backing vocals where deemed necessary and plenty of capacity for mass audience singalongs. As only two of the eleven breaking three minutes 45, for the most part it imparts the feel of a Wombats gone right, feeling energetically playful and direct rather than clever-clever.The problem inherent in it is that over the course of an album variation is at a premium. On a lot of tracks you can tell where there's going to be a guitar break, or where the instruments will pause for a moment leaving Colclough to appeal more directly. Sometimes it's merely that their obvious influences conspire to overtake them. 'Tomorrow' and 'Oklahoma' in particular are a murmured vocal short of Is This It out-takes, the latter threatening to turn into 'Someday'. 'Lightbulbs' is 2006 Indie Disco 101, while 'Emergency' isn't too far away from Snow Patrol.What they don't sound like is another Libertines knockoff, and for that at least we should be grateful. Given this long hot summer that's supposed to be imminent The Answering Machine could easily find a willing audience for such fundamentally infectious mini-anthems. The main impression, though, is that their best might still be to come when they find a way of roughing things up a bit from the slightly too clean production lines throughout this album, advancing their influences away from something Absolute Radio might gladly playlist towards a happy point between their dynamic abilities and their potential range. For now it still feels like great guitar pop searching for a way to fulfil its potential. 67%The Answering Machine on Myspace