Courteeners – ‘Pink Cactus Café’ review: a kaleidoscopic release

DMA’S hop on the arena-crushing ‘The Beginning Of The End’ to form the ultimate indie disco supergroup, with English singer-songwriter Pixey lending her bittersweet tones to the state-of-the-nation address of album highlight ‘First Name Terms’, hitting back at a ruling class who “look away from you and me”, finding “another way to shake the fucking tree” as we “lie back and think of England, but when does England ever think of you?”

It only adds to the full heart, fed mind and kaleidoscopic feel of the record. The escapist whistle-along title track owes a thing or two to some classic ‘60s songwriting, ‘Lu Lu’ takes us to Paris for a heartbreak anthem and a genuinely blind-siding chorus that could bother Radio One with the poppiest of the popsters, and closer ‘Bitten By Unseen Teeth’ has that larger-than-life War On Drugs rush to it. These aren’t songs by parka monkeys drinking Dark Fruits in the landfill of indie; they add up to a colourful sky that stretches way beyond Manchester. There’s confidence, and then there’s this.