Stars of CCTV was the name of a very lo-fi Hard-Fi mini-album which caused quite a stir when it came out last October, kicking off a rapid rise to fame for one of England's best young bands, and leading to the release of Stars of CCTV, the major label full debut album. And it's a cracker...

Hard-Fi are probably the first new thing to come out of Staines since Ali G, and they're certainly a hell of a lot more entertaining and definitely more passionate about their environment.

Apparently, when they had finished this album they immediately stuck it in their car stereo and went cruising round Staines to see if its tales of ASBOs, bling and cash machines would sound right in its native home. Maybe you could do a similar road-test in Moss Side?

Anyway, Cash Machine opens this album and is already their signature tune, and will be instantly familiar to anyone who has felt like they were 'working for the cash machine'. Hard-Fi may be a bit more flush with record label dosh than when they wrote it, but they haven't left their roots behind, recording Stars of CCTV at the same former 24-hour cab office that the mini-album was done in).

Middle Eastern Holiday is a slightly fuzzier story of a friend lost to Iraqi bullets, but the album's highlight is Tied Up Too Tight which is firmly based right at home, telling of the need to break out of small-town traps in a way that Bruce Springsteen would certainly approve of. It helps that it's spurred on by a great chorus that justifies the album's price tag on its own.

Ode to clubbing Hard To Beat is another catchy tune, coming across as a cross between The Streets' Fit But You Know It and The Specials. That description quite well sums up Hard-Fi, who are defiantly taking back the 'urban' tag for guitar bands - although they aren't afraid to go all Coldplay on the piano-led ballad Move On Now. Chris Martin probably wouldn't write a tune as spiteful as Better Do Better though...

Of course, with albums so geographically-centralized as this, there is always the risk that it won't appeal to people from, say, Manchester, but that's really not a problem with Stars Of CCTV. It's so infectiously entertaining that it's pretty difficult to dislike and certainly Hard To Beat.