Being an avid reader of punknews I think you'll all agree that there are not enough reviews of English punk bands. ‘So what' I hear my American cousins shout. Well in fact the British punk scene has crawled out from the shadow of Johnny Rotten and clan and has begun to inmate the imitators. Confused? Well the amount of fun, middle class punk bands that has satirised our shores for the past decade has spawned modern British punk.

Anyway Not Katies are one of the bands to take the American blue print for punk and used it create a catchy record. The quartet (now quintet) from Southampton has decided not to make boats or whatever they do down there and have instead jumped on the carriage of pop punk. Described by their label as ‘Midtown meets Gameface' they play the kind of music that you can't but help sing along to. There are no songs about the queen on here, instead you have eleven tracks mainly focused on topic of relationships and that kind of ‘great' stuff.

Track one ‘2 Halves of 2', which is being quite heavily promoted in England (they even have a video on cable) is a simple three minute tune with a catchy chorus and should be the easiest to get hold of, if you yanks want to download it. Track four ‘Gratitude' is the stand out track for me with guitar riffs that made my trousers fall down when I first heard it. The Midtown influence can best heard on ‘Always Them' with dual vocals that would make many emo rockers wet their plastic bed sheets. The title of the last track sounds like some Ataris cast off ‘Summer Break in San Remo', and begins as a sweet ballad until the second minute when the guitars kick in and it totally blew me away. The lyrics are cleverly written without the ‘cheese' factor of many of the bands that try and impress us Brits. Also well down to Deck Cheese, who are not massive label, but have given the record awesome production and it sounds excellent.

Of course the album doesn't ooze originality as another band tries to squeeze the already dry udder of the pop punk cow, but unlike some bands they use it to fine effect. This record is good enough to convince me that although influenced heavily by you Americans, the future of British pop punk is in good hands. Possibly the best of its kind by a British band, simple as that.