Automatic People. - Tom Flynn

Taken for the suitably named Travels, Flynn‘s debut solo album, Automatic People, is a pop-rock meander through the modern city rush hour, one which crackles with the hustle and hassle of those caught in traffic, rushing to get to work on time and the rat race of the nine to five which is the reality for most of us. Mixing jangling interludes with heavy guitar rhythms, keyboard washes with pulsing bass runs, it is as musically pacy and diverse as the picture it paints.

It’s a clever song matching rock urge with pop infectiousness to create something both easily accessed but rewardingly competent. There is something of later R.E.M. about it, not least the title, but also that same alternative take on rock that sits between the quirky and the compelling but perhaps sweeter and less spiky than the Athens brethren’s sonic choices. A song with an easy gait, wonderfully approachable and the perfect teaser for the album which hatched it. - Dave Franklin