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Worryingly, We Versus The Shark's second track on this debut album is called As Good As It Gets: "This is as good as it gets/it don't get any better". OK, I won't bother then...
...Only I do, as not continuing beyond a ten-track album's second song isn't really fair on anyone (unless you're tackling Keane or a similar band of lightweights, in which case it's perfectly reasonable). I'm in luck too, as the band's third effort, Ten Uh Clock Heart Uh Tack, easily betters the brace that come before it. An ultimately calamitous affair, the song begins steadily with some alluring female vocals, before cascading, drums first, into a jerky post-punk mess, only to return to stability with the questions: "Are you decent? Are you responsible?" Well I sure hope so for continuing beyond that second song. Unfortunately, the remaining seven are hit and miss at best. When they hit, such as with the jazzy I Am At The Mercy Of An Ambulance Driver ("Dance with me... run away!"), they leave a sizeable Q And Not U-shaped bruise. When they don't, We Versus The Shark come across as just another punk act with a penchant for dance beats. A shame, then, that the misses just about outnumber the hits.

Mike Diver
February-April 2005

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