Since Beta Band founding member Gordon ‘Lone Pigeon’ Anderson spent eight hellish years from 1997 in and out of psychiatric institutions, it’s tempting to read The Aliens’ debut as a metaphor for his fragile mental state.

This, however, would sell his talent unfairly short. Not every one of these 11 songs is a work of wayward genius - “Rox”, for example, is a crude, beats-driven retread of the Primal Scream stomper. But terrific hidden track “Caravan”, a space-boogie epic with overtones of “Tusk”, and the exquisite, Byrds-like “Honest Again” help win the day.

SHARON O’CONNELL

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