There’s a clear ostentatiousness to Melbourne four-piece SubAudible Hum that perhaps, in other hands, may work against the band. It’s like…they know they’re good, and they’re not afraid to show it. That sort of brazen confidence can be a killer.

It begins and ends with vocalist Daniel Griffith, who has one of those voices that folks are either going to love or hate – it’s an emotive wail on opener “Blood in the Ointment”, with the rousing intensity of the music carrying it along on a wave of sheer aggression. Elsewhere, “Arch Rivals” features some of the prettiest keyboards heard this side of the Stranglers’ “Golden Brown”, while “Is That All You Got” and “Next Year’s Plans For Mexico” pulsate with a joyous pop energy that might even get SubAudible Hum some much longed for alternative and community radio play.

The jaunty “Today is the Day” gives over to the very wine-soaked “Heroes”, which ends up feeling like something Dave Graney might come up with, while the title cut itself reverts to Griffith wailing like a man possessed, but without the naked aggression displayed on “Blood in the Ointment”. The only time that comes out of the box again is on the twelve-minute long “Puddle of a Nation”, which finds SubAudible Hum building their sound to a resounding crescendo, before pulling it back again.

After that, the closing “Working Title Films” coasts through on barely-there acoustica. This is where Griffith’s voice is actually at its strongest, where it has room to breathe. SubAudible Hum create a hell of a racket on their debut album, but this closing song quite clearly shows that they’ve also Griffith has considerable songwriting gifts. With their debut out of the way, now they can really focus on delivering something absolutely gob-smackingly amazing on their sophomore effort.