Representing Warwickshire: Nizlopi – JCB
“I’m Luke, I’m 5 and my dad’s Bruce Lee, drives me round in his JCB” – how cute can you get? The band is made up of Luke and John, indie’s sweet but geeky answer to Sam and Mark. The song is very unusual, it might get annoying after a while, but for now it’s great!
Representing Edinburgh: Idlewild – El Capitan
I loved the first single from this album, Love Steals Us From Loneliness, and the socond single, I Understand It, was quite good too, but this is just as good if not better than the first one. It’s very jaunty and has a similar sound to Snow patrol’s Chocolate, which is my favourite song by them.
Representing London: Hard-Fi – Hard To Beat
This band are obviously quite keen to tell us how ‘hard’ they are, but actually this song is not so scary. Their last single, Tied Up Too Tight, had one ace bit (“straight outta West LonDON!”), but this one has several. Am I going soft or are they? I think the latter!