Bad Dream Hotline - Foe

If there was nothing else to Hannah Louise Clark's repertoire as Foe than the Christina Aguilera-baiting Genie In A Coke Can it would still be more than enough for me. It's biting lyrics along the lines of "millions in marketing of pop star trash" and it's catchy refrains of "I want to be a worldwide sensation, I want all men to salivate over me" might well be the most scathing and accurate attack on SOME parts of the modern pop world you'll be lucky to hear.

That it's wrapped in the kind of radio-friendly unit shifter melody that one of her musical hero's Kurt Cobain both sought for and hated just makes the skewering all the more delicious.

And it's far from the only highlight.

Ode To Janey Lou makes Grunge seem relevant for the first time in years (although the song is much more than juts that) whilst even when slowing things down a little, on the wonderfully titled A Handsome Stranger Called Death, there is a vitality that makes for great listening. In truth there's a lot more on Bad Dream Hotline that hits the spot than that that doesn't.

So if, like me, you were slightly put off by the press releases where tales of being suspected of being a witch by her schoolmates made it difficult to work out whether or not you should believe what you hear, then rectify that right now. Treading a line between willful eclecticism and straight up awesome pop melodies but giving you the best of those opposites to come up with something that, with any justice, should place Foe alongside some of those pop-stars backed with mega-million marketing before 2012 is out.

Perhaps the only criticism I can bring forward is that there could almost be said to be a little TOO much going on in the twelve songs as if the Foe "sound" has yet to settle on what it really wants to be. But hey, that can wait until the second album.