FURNITURE — Brilliant Mind

FURNITURE: Brilliant Mind (Stiff)

PARTLY BECAUSE it has hooks down the whole of its length, like some extraordinary fishing-lure, and not least because it's ripped a guitar-part straight off New Order and a bassline from 'Tube Station At Midnight' and in small part due to Jim Irvin, with his nice pained manner and the way he carefully unpacks his suicide-voice, this is much more than just a bearable pop record. But it's the noises, the daring — or at least quirky — chunks of sound that bounce slightly unevenly, like razored power-balls, that push it into the first division. Studied, likeable, not pretending not to be intelligent.