Album: Star*Bodixa - 'and they danced on glass'

Label: Energy Records
Released: Feb 24th 03 - OUT NOW!
Web: www.starbodixa.co.uk

It didn't bode well, that's for sure. That cutesy name, song titles like 'Fairytaled' and 'Balloon' and boasts of super-sweet female vocals...well, its hardly likely to be death metal, is it? You could certainly be forgiven for thinking that the Leeds' quintet's debut LP would be drippingly twee. Fortunately that's not the case. The PJ Harvey-esque brittleness of opener 'Give Me Rain' lets you know this isn't all going to be heavily saccharin stuff, and the aforementioned 'Fairytailed' in fact gives sweet indie-pop a very good name. True, Anna Elias' vocals may accompany music that strays a little too close to bland Dido territory at times ('Can You Survive?','I Keep Out of Your Way') but overall it'd take a cold heart indeed to dismiss them entirely.

6/10
Matt Tomiak