The Chemists - Theories of Dr. Lovelock

The name suggests psychedelia-embracing adventurers on the narcotic high seas; the reality is of an act altogether more earthbound.

Bristol quintet The Chemists excel in lumpen riffage and tired and tested ideas, hence we get the attitude of Britpop wedded to the sounds emanating from the commercial end of the American alt-rock spectrum.

From the off, the clichés come thicker than the patients at an obesity clinic. ‘This City’ gives us hookers, jetlag, drugs and Hong Kong, whilst ‘Hot In That’ makes the startling revelation that models are only good for wearing clothes. And the less said about that cover of Britney Spears ‘Toxic’ the better.

4/10

Words by Francis Jones