The Rumble Strips are a band that without seemingly trying, split opinion. Being the lead act on the soundtrack to Run Fatboy Run, and having played as headliners on the 2007 Topman NME New Music Tour smacks to the uneducated as the ascendancy of just another indie band. This is what their most loyal fans would have you believe, and that beneath the glossy veneer of success lies an undercoat of sheer originality.A sound that apparently couples “1940s wartime melodies and early 1960s European soul.” Or so goes the promotional blurb for their second full length album, Welcome To The Walk Alone. Amongst this are further plaudits, including that the record sounds like “nothing else released this year”, and furthermore, that it is “timeless”. The usual round of buzzwords, but on the whole, a fair reflection of what's going on here. Timeless though?I think that's pushing it just a bit. You'll blink and miss an albums worth of material here, literally. It charges along at an enjoyable pace, not surprising for a band that more often than not puts on very successful, bouncy, jingly jangly live shows. The Rumble Strips are certainly a unique sounding act, and the tracks on this effort maintain the almost relentlessly upbeat feel they crafted on their previous effort, Girls and Weather. Singer Charlie Waller embellishes the music particularly well; you can try and think of other singers who might compliment things better, but you'll fail.So, tight, vibrant, light hearted. Good for half an hour, as the albums length suggests. Any expansion on this though, be it the number of tracks, or going from upbeat to downbeat, would expose them in quite spectacular fashion. This is not to even particularly criticise the band at all, it's patently clear they know this. Putting them in the timeless pigeon hole is however to unfairly open fire on them.If you look at Welcome To The Walk Alone from that miscued angle, you can only genuinely say that 'Not The Only Person' achieves this. Every single cut does what its predecessor did before it; blaring trumpets and saxophones to a jaunty indie soundtrack. The production is lively, the drums edgy. It's all here, and arranged into eleven more or less equal segments. The title track, and 'London' in particular, get things moving along at a pace that rarely drops or loses its zest.You hear some of what the promo sticker is talking about with the opening to 'Back Bone', a song dramatically decorated by a vintage string arrangement. There are a couple of sections that make sturdy use of backing vocals, 'Raindrops' is the most distinctive and attractive example of this. On the whole though, it's as their gigs are, a blast of all things feel good. Harmless fun, and not to be mistaken with any of the other hit factories around at present. 62%The Rumble Strips on Myspace