Soulspeckled mopflippin’ pop sharks Julie’s Haircut may not win any awards for their dreadful band name, but when bound to long-playing spinning plastic they present an effortlessly diverse set of tracks and tasslytacks for our delecation.

’Adult Situations’ is the sound of a band with the maturity to identify, accept and nurture their musical and lyrical influences without revelling in subcutaceous revisionism. As the album nods toward the obvious suspects, it becomes clear that there are some quality records to be found in the Italians’ collections. Try Pavement (‘We Are Not Alone’),* Acid Jazz (‘Marmalade’),or even * Flaming Lips (‘Fear Don’t Live Here Anymore’). Nice stuff, that more or less makes up for the fact that the first song on the record is distressingly called 'In The Air Tonight’. Thankfully, Phil Collins is nowhere to be seen. If only life really did mirror art eh?

At times, Julie’s Haircut fly drunkenly and dangerously close to mid-90s U2 – particularly on the title track of their recently EP, ’The Power Of Psychic Revenge’. That, people, is not what you would necessarily call A Good Thing, because *JH* ply an entirely melliflous, subtle and innocently invidious trade that's in no need of melding into other people’s mascara quite so obviously.

As a whole, ‘Adult Situations’ can often recede into the background whilst you potter about the house lighting candles, making real coffee with Columbian beans and bathing the orchids, or whatever the fuck it is that real grownups do. Duskily dreamy, there are many individual moments of beauty through craft and slow-motion crackling emotive quality to be found here.