When The Like first appeared last year, there were plenty of teenage girl groups, but not too many clutching guitars and exhuding a fiesty attitude. Now, of course, there's The Faders, The Tommys, The Suffrajets, and a whole host of others - leaving The Like trying to elbow into the very market that they once innovated in.
What I Say And What I Mean though fizzes with enough energy and effervescence to stop The Like being dismissed as "just another girl group". Buzzy guitar riffs abound, with lead singer Z Berg sounding ever so like a cheered up P J Harvey. Short and sweet, it'll cheer your life up for all of its two minutes. Back up track Once Things Look Up has a more blissed out, lazy feel to it, proving that the trio are far from one-trick ponies.
There's also a surprising version of Split Enz's One Step Ahead, with Neil Finn's pop genius still lurking underneath The Like's more grimy treatment. Less poppy than their contempories, you should be hearing a lot more of The Like during 2006.
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