They're moving in leaps and bounds, Jetplane Landing are. This, their second album, is so much louder, faster, shoutier and angrier than the first that were it not for singer Andrew Ferris' occasional relapse into the Steven Malkmus-styled vocal that commanded the first album, Zero For Conduct, you'd barely recognise them.

After a few listens though, the familiarity seeps in. The angular riffs, diatribe lyrics and agitated delivery were all present previously, but here they have come to dominate, leaving no room for the tenderness and fragility that gave shade to the first album. Thankfully, probably due in part to the recruitment of second guitarist Cahir O'Docherty, the band have developed a fiercely heavy guitar sound, perfectly suiting the muscular riffs that provide the foundations of the album.

This means that the reference points have changed significantly. Whereas previously Pavement, Nada Surf, and a whole host of fuzzy American bands from the mid nineties were recalled, the influences here seem to be more focused on post-hardcore and emo. The righteous ghosts of Fugazi ("Writing The Ways Down"), Rival Schools ("Writing The Ways Down") and even Jimmy Eat World (especially on the ace ending to "Effect A Change") are all present and correct, but never once clashing with one another. These are deployed with the kind of savage intensity that puts the current crop of so-called "extremo" bands to shame.

It's an album you can't help but describe as a monster. The riffs demand it. Unrelenting and single-minded in its mission, it may lack some of the charm and subtlety of the debut, but it compensates with a whole host of proper, floor-shaking rock action that that first record barely even promised.

Tom Pegg - 8/10

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