Post Historic Monsters

CARTER USM: "Post Historic Monsters" (Chrysalis)

THERE'S SOMETHING absurdly English and resolutely dependable about Carter USM which always makes me think of them as the indie equivalent to the Queen Mum (God bless 'er).

A cheery smile, a ready quip and an unerring ability to do the right thing at the right time have maintained Jim Bob and Fruitbat's position as a national institution while many of their less clued up contemporaries have found themselves abandoned by a music press desperate to replace yesterday's heroes with this year's model.

A charmed life, perhaps, but there's only so much mileage you can derive out of being the world's oldest teenagers and with Post Historic Monsters, there's a definite feeling that Carter are trying to prove that they're more than a couple of silly haircuts and a hyperactive beatbox.

Don't go expecting any radical transformations - there are no string sections or girlie backing vocals here, mate! - but, in their own sweet New Cross way, Carter have managed to combine born again maturity with the reckless sense of abandon that has always been their most endearing trademark.

The double whammy opening attack of 'The Music That Nobody Likes' and 'Mid Day Crisis' immediately rams the point home. Dealing respectively with the rise of the extreme right and David Koresh's wayward Waco adventures, both songs are driven along by a wild water wave of metal guitar that owes as much to Seattle as it does Sarf London.

There's another nod towards current trends on the Kravitz and Trent D'Arby inspired 'Lenny And Terrence', a sort of Young Gods-meet-ZZ Top industrial boogie stomp which declares war on the Hendrix-fixated retro brigade. Elsewhere, 'Being Here' is late night jazz of the sleaziest variety, 'Travis' pays suitably psychotic homage to Robert De Niro's Taxi Driver anti-hero and 'Under The Thumb And Over The Moon' gets unashamedly soppy as Jim Bob declares his monogamous love for his wife.

There are occasions when Carter's punsome wordplay is a little too clever for its own good but when it's combined with a measure of sensitivity, as on 'Suicide Isn't Painless', the one-liners can be devastatingly effective. "Suicide isn't painless, it hurts like Hell/ It's set aside for the famous, a little suicide sells/ Nothing lasts forever but nothing ever did/ It's big but it's not clever and it's really not that big."

The barbs are altogether more pointed on 'Stuff The Jubilee' and 'A Bachelor For Baden Powell', the latter giving institutionalised child abuse a painfully accurate knee in the ging gang goolies. 'Spoilsports Personality Of The Year' and 'Evil' are the most obvious throwbacks to what I suspect diehard fans might regard as 'vintage Carter' but still manage to pull themselves free of the post-punk rut that the lads started falling into on their 30 Something and 1992 . . . albums.

As one might say if one lived in Buckingham Palace, Post Historic Monsters is a right royal knees up.

• Stuart Clark