STV Album Review

Things weren’t always this rosy for The View . A couple of years ago they found themselves without a rehearsal room having got booted out of the local pub that gifted the band their name (the Bayview Bar), after an incident that the band describe in succinct and matter-of-fact terms. "We drank all the beer in the function room… and then rode a scooter along the bar," they tell /music. Oops. Still, never mind - two years after having built up an Arctic Monkeys-like frenzied fanbase, these four young rock urchins from Dundee are now ready to unleash the full fury of their debut album .

The band were always going to be in safe hands with legendary knob twiddler Owen Morris at the controls, and here he gives them only what they needed; to press the record button and see what happens. The band concur: "that’s the sound we were going for… nearly like a live album." Hence we hear somebody coughing near the end of Don’t Tell Me, and someone is told to "**** off" in no uncertain terms at the end of Streetlights.

While fans will already have punched the air and pushed their mates to stonking previous singles, Superstar Tradesman and the blistering Wasted Little DJ’s, current single Same Jeans is a chipper paean to being young and having a blast. And that’s what’s so appealing about The View: while they sometimes wear their influences like a badge on their jackets (play the ska-tinged Skag Trendy backwards and you WILL hear the Libs’ 'Boy Looked At Johnny' playing back at you), they get away with it through the sheer charm and joie-de-vivre that shines throughout their debut. Hats Off to the Buskers is basically the sound of four young men in the prime of their lives, having the time of their lives. Let’s hope they never grow old.

Hats Off to the Buskers is out now in stores and to download. We’ll have more on The View on stv/music over the next few weeks, including an exclusive video interview when the band are in Glasgow.

STV.co.uk 22/1/07