Tapes 'n Tapes are an indie band, right down to the core. Forget about picking up this album in your local music emporium, the only place that you're going to be getting this is if you buy it off of the band's website, or any one of a number of fine internet retailers with indie cred to burn. The production is low-quality, you're unlikely to see the band headlining a national tour, let alone coming to your country, and various indie publications are going absolutely ga-ga over them.

It surprised me to discover though, that while this band has definitely arrived at my attention on the hype train, they're actually rather decent. Not spectacular in the sense that they're going to revolutionise the music world, but decent in the sense that their album is not a complete waste of time and effort. The guys in this band (and try as I might, I cannot find the names of anyone involved, even after looking at their stunningly uninformative website), obviously draw a lot of influence from bands like The Pixies, Pavement or even The Arcade Fire. Their music might not be especially polished, but it is heartfelt.

To see what I mean, you need look no further than Insistor, the track that's responsible for a lot of the buzz that currently surrounds the band. It gallops along with just the tiniest hint of twang mixed in with its gloriously unruly indie rock body, subtly changing its form as the song progresses, so that it never settles down and becomes repetitive or dull. It's gloriously shambolic, and it should satisfy everyone who loved "Funeral", and wanted more of the same.

Of course, the band is no one-trick pony, and the album is full of other interesting songs as well. The band gets a lot more smarmy on Cowbell, In Houston is a loud indie rocker, and The Iliad starts off as a twee pop track before morphing into a bizarre piece of music, and Manitoba is covered in beautiful sprinkles of guitar.

This album succeeds for more or less the same reason that The Arcade Fire did a couple of years ago, it might be shoddily produced, and the band members might not have the greatest technical ability in the world, but the songwriting is solid, and the lyrics are heartfelt. Tapes 'n Tapes might not be the saviours of rock and roll, but "The Loon" certainly isn't going to hurt the cause, either.