Well-crafted songs, slightly Americanised vocals; we've heard it all before of course but it would take a hard heart not to find room for 'Just Backward Of Square' in one's record collection. The first half of this debut album is excellent with a sequence of five top quality songs. Lowgold play things a little slower than others and there is a definite country influence in there somewhere. 'Mercury', with it's mock-Peter Hook bass is one of many standouts but 'Back Here Again' and 'Out Of Reach' are achingly wonderful slow-rock numbers. Just to show they can be concise, 'Counterfeit' is like the band playing at 45rpm instead of 33 and perhaps represents their best chance of chart viability. There is a noticeable tail-off in quality towards the end of the album, however, which makes one believe the album could have been shorter but there's enough good tracks on here to make it a fine debut album. Just Backward Of Square? Well, it's more a case of just to the left of Coldplay really.