The Black Velvets sound rather unlike most bands from their native city of Liverpool. Whereas The Coral and The Zutons both plough the Scouse furrow of quirky pop, these glam rockers aren't interested in the city's legacy of Beatles-esque music and go straight for the scuzzy jugular.

Having supported the likes of Motley Crue, The Who and The Killers this year, the Velvets have certainly been making friends and influencing people, but with so many bands sounding like them, it's difficult to see them being a success.

They've got the riffs, they've got the choruses and they've got the attitude, but it's all very generic. This album is full of sneering Oasis-style working class bluster, but it's a long time since Rock 'n' Roll Star was a hit, and the market isn't geared towards these kind of bands like it was not so long ago.

It's a shame because this album really is better than most of its contempories, and has the unusual twist of being a debut album that actually improves in the second half, rather than tailing off after a few good opening blasts. On the contrary, TBV starts off rather disappointingly with nothing really catching fire until early single 3345.

That is followed up by almost-single Glamstar (which was dropped just before its release date earlier in the summer) and then the excellent Lady Lime, which has the mature sound of a band much further into their career than the Velvets. The cocky You Won't Be Changing Me finds them veering close to early Oasis (Liam Gallagher was actually backstage with them when they got a record deal).

They finally really cut loose on album closer You're Not Giving It All, which has guitar twiddling that their heroes would be proud of as well as some grungey feedback to finish off with. Unfortunately, there isn't anything on here that makes them stand out from the rest of the crowd, so unless they can start getting Pete Doherty-style press coverage, it's hard to see where they go from here.