Wooah! 'Lately Lonely''s Darker Than Midnight-hybrid of warm electroclash bass and icy goth-synths jumps straight at you with the kind of stomping techno beat that's usually reserved for the Berlin Love Parade. Which has a definite freezing-shower effect: a sharp intake of breath and two seconds of disorientation, followed by a nicer refreshing sensation.

Richard Warren's vocals come over forcedly detached, culminating in ironically breezy sounding _"La la la" chorus lines, which add a good measure of indie tension to it all, but I'm really not sure about the church bells, which he's undoubtedly nicked from St Etienne. Back in 1995!

Altogether there are some sharp contrasts in this single, too sharp in places maybe, but the general feel is good. Kinda like chocolate-covered pretzels...

Attached to the CD-version also come two instrumental tracks: 'Bastard Cartel'_ is essentially a hard trance track, while 'Growing Older Not Growing Up' takes two light-footed steps further into melody - at least until Jimi Hendrix comes round for a jam circa 3 minutes into the track and it all falls apart into Spinal Tap mayhem...