I’ve been waiting for a while for this one, and it doesn’t disappoint. I have one quibble, and I’ll get it out of the way nice and early so I can concentrate on the good stuff: the new version of Death Before the Silver Screen is not a patch on the original. So there.

As for the rest of the album, bloody marvellous. Big Dan has honed his tortured wail to a fine point, and Little Dan’s violin is a ray of sunshine. It all sounds subtly different from what I was expecting, as did their labelmates the Sequins on their debut release last year.

Expectations aside, there are just a stack of great songs on this record. Get the Male Back, the Healer, Song for Nona, Broken Viol… ah fuck it, never mind, they’re all great. Really, they are. All except that reworking of Death Before the Silver Screen.

I’ve thrown a few comparisons at Honeytrap over the last year, trying to find one that would stick, and funnily enough the latest one that springs to mind is early 90s indie. Violin aside, there’s something about this sound that really reminds me of my first couple of years at Uni back in 1993/4, don’t ask me why. Ballard Down in particular really reminds me of this era, so perhaps it’s time to start making ironic Best of the 90s compilations – after all, the 80s furore seems to have finally died a death.

For all the groups using violin at the moment, I think Honeytrap count as one of the most innovative.  They are essentially a guitar-based indie band, with the violin bringing new and occasionally bizarre inflections to what is basically a guitar indie record, rather than attempting to define the music all by itself.  But enough review – it’s fucking great, this.  Nothing like what I was expecting and everything I was hoping for.  Buy one.

Honeytrap – Eleven
Honeytrap – The Healer

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