Take track two, Girl With 7 Fingers, for example. Not only does it have a top name, it starts with a furious guitar solo which tails off into something all together more melodic and tuneful, to be followed up by Missing The Point's angular art rock, somewhere between OMD and Art Brut with a breathy vocal that adds a sense of mystery and depth to its chords.

Love's Sick Disease is another killer title, this time with a piano intro worthy of an independent movie soundtrack to tickle our ears and convince us that Seagull Strange have a got a bit more to offer than the average indie white boys with guitars plus girl with a violin.

It's not all muso worthiness though: singalonga La La La Leu, enjoy Bitten To The Quick's fun whistley bits and on Jack Is Back they tread perilously close to poodle-perm air guitar self indulgence, although this is also where they get closest to sounding like The Auteurs - two descriptions which shouldn't work together but somehow do.

After an Indian-influenced sitar-style intro, Love and Death (notice a lyrical theme developing here?) switches genres again, this time to more 70s medieval madrigal influenced folk, beautifully haunting and reminiscent of Procul Harem and other soft-focus tail-end of the '60s summery drifters.

The result is a mixed bag that holds together well and works as a good showcase to the six-piece band, who add classical trappings of violins and pianos to the standard guitar and drums line-up. It's one of those albums that instantly sounds familiar, so that by the third or fourth listen you already recognise the main hooks.

There's no standout singles, however, and that probably is a weakness - it's great background music and a good album to listen to while you do the ironing, but to get themselves noticed they may need something more instantly foot-tapping to grab the attention of the fickle public.

Still, guitarist Millins has a 'luxuriant handlebar moustache' apparently, which their growing fanbase likes to imitate, so that might do the trick in the meantime and if it doesn't, the model seagulls on sticks the crowd will be waving at their forthcoming gigs will make a good photo opportunity.

This is their first full-length release, following on from a download-only EP, Think Happy Thoughts in 2004 and a physical one, Animals, in 2005. In other words, they've had plenty of time to think about what they're doing and where they want to be. The result is accomplished, listenable and just the right side of average. It'll sound even better come the summer.

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