To make a body of work that is excellent despite being so obviously rooted in the music of yesteryear is a great achievement. The La's one and only album is so assured that any notions of nostalgic cheese can be waved in an instant; all this despite the band's leader, Lee Mavers, dismissing the material without even a hint of irony. Just to remind ourselves, anyone who believes that familiarity breeds contempt has obviously not cocked an ear to 'There She Goes' but 'The La's' is littered with gems. There's the explosive guitar crescendo on 'Timeless Melody' (its title would have done justice to the album, really) , the hypnotic effect which is induced whilst hearing the final tune, 'Looking Glass' as the pace picks up more and more before reaching inevitably delirious finale. But that aside this has to be known as a classic 60's beat group album with 'I.O.U.' the only track to be accused of over-simplifying the melody. Crucially, ten years on this album has aged extremely or maybe it's 40 years, who can really tell?