A somewhat overlooked band, Stretch Princess are the English equivalent of Letters to Cleo. This CD, their self-titled first album makes a good attempt at girlpop-meets-guitars.

The band have toured with Third Eye Blind amongst others, and it shows. Stretch Princess, like tourmates Third Eye Blind, manage to mix melody and intelligence with upbeat fun, but not leaving out the ballads. First track, 'Oooh!' is a sparkly guitar-driven pop song. It's upbeat and fun, a real sing-a-long summer song - a double-edged sword in that the following tracks are somewhat sullen in comparison. Downbeat, the CD still maintains a happy-sad-in-love vibe. Track eight ('Sugar') kicks back into the girl-pop-guitar vibe, perhaps slightly too long to wait in accordance with the rest of the tracklisting. This is surely what the epitome of the term "easy listening" is. It's a fun, listenable, good debut CD which can only lead to good things.