Usually, CDs handed to you randomly at shows (or, in this case, at an interview with a totally unrelated band) are cack. Fact. That's why there's a spotty little kid handing them out rather than a big, burly PR guy with a three-page bio and list of tourdates longer than P Diddy's limo. BUT, this really isn't, cack that is.

Latitude Blue are four guys from Swindon, a town more famous for bringing about the downfall of Wernham Hogg that anything else, that like their rock served with a generous dollop of mid-90s US emo - think Texas Is The Reason, Quicksand et al - yet also display an apparent appreciation of a clutch of (even) older acts, The Cure to name but one. Self-described as 'emo/indie rockers' on the flyer handed to me at the same time as this CD, the band deserve somewhat more than such a lazy pigeonholing. Exactly what though is a mystery - perhaps there is no easy pigeonhole for this particular type of accomplished, yet ever-so delicate, emotive rock music; it speaks for itself easily enough. 'In The Morning', track three of four, has an almost alt. country feel to it, suggesting that Latitude Blue could soon surpass their contemporary UK peers through a persistent course of invention and a wry look or two to the past.

Closer 'I Wasn't Born Just To Exist' is the sort of slow-burner that you know would set hearts alight if given a run on alternative radio, and puts a good number of higher-profile acts, naming no names, to shame. Sure, right now everything's fairly familiar sounding - Latitude Blue are still the sum of their collective parts, and record collections, rather than their own unique entity - but chocolate ice cream is familiar tasting, and that doesn't stop you going back to it over and over again. Next time out, with a little self-confidence, Latitude Blue could really turn heads.