Lead singer Brian Aubert's curious vocal style is most often likened to Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan and there is, indeed, a noticeable Pumpkins feel to much of the material here. Equally, though, echoes of other singers like Conor Oberst (in the tremulous, slightly fey delivery), or even Scritti Politti's Green Garside can also be heard, countering accusations that this is in any way a deliberate impersonation.

The distinctive, earnest-sounding and sometimes rather whiney singing is offset by the ballsy guitar and bass playing. Particularly heavy riffage features on the impact-making opener There's No Secrets This Year, and is also strewn throughout the album on tracks like The Royal We and Sort Of.

They also hint at their axe-wielding heroes/influences by obliquely namechecking Led Zeppelin, using the lyric "When the levees break" in It's Nice To Know You Work Alone. Bass guitar lines are often featured to the fore and add a touch of funk, as on Growing Old, Panic Switch and Catch & Release.

Their music is all very serious in tone and, presumably, in intent. A lot of the lyricism is of the "sufficiently vague that it could mean one of a number of things" school, but it's occasionally just plain weak: "When there's smoke in the sky / Please don't wake me I don't know why" (from Sort Of), for example. The mood evoked is often either one of wistfulness (It's Nice To Know You Work Alone, Draining, Substitution, Catch & Release) or a sort of catch-all ill-defined portentousness that often tips over into melodrama (The Royal We, Panic Switch, Sort Of).

This can become a little wearisome, but where Silversun Pickups score much more highly is on their way with a melody. The tunes in the likes of There's No Secrets This Year, It's Nice To Know You Work Alone, Sort Of and the well-structured closing track Surrounded all are of that type that manage to creep into your subconscious and then bedding down there, to reappear, unsummoned, at unguarded moments.

Swoon, then, is a mixed listening experience, with the solemnity and over-seriousness of the general tone and the occasionally grating nature of that voice being more or less mitigated by some lovely melodies and first-rate guitar riffs. Negotiating the grey area between rock and, well, indie-rock, it is to be hoped that Swoon doesn't find itself falling between the two. Rather, as seems more likely, it'll pick up fans from adherents of both.

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Mercury Prize 2009 nominees