The second album from Sunderland’s The Futureheads, News And Tributes is the sound of a band not only brave enough to toss away a fistful of their trump cards, but sharp enough to slip a few fresh ones from their sleeve. Where their joyfully guileless debut rattled along on breathless four-part harmonies and breakneck new-wave hooks a la Elvis Costello or The Jam, here we find The Futureheads injecting their structure with a fresh sense of space and a newly wistful, reflective melodic edge. In true post-punk fashion, ‘Fallout’ and ‘Burnt’ tackle love und romance without resorting to cliché, the former a harmony-laden break-up/make-up number tinted with Cold War paranoia, the latter an arch, propulsive construction reminiscent of art-punks Wire that compares falling in love to sustaining third-degree burns. Occasional dark sentiments aside, however, News And Tributes remains a beautifully crafted, melodically memorable rock record. Apart, that is, from "Return Of The Berserker"--a cacophonous mid-album rampage that sees The Futureheads turning amps up to 11 and dipping the dials into the red, seemingly just to show they still can.--Louis Pattison