How would one describe The World/Inferno Friendship Society? Punk? Cabaret? Klezmer? I guess all of these things, and more! On stage about 8 or 9 members is what you see of the group, but this album credits a total of 16 musicians including string and brass players. The band have been around for quite some time - their first full length album released 10 years ago - but they are still relatively unheard of in England.

Brother of the Mayor hits straight away with its bluesy style and energy. Warning: you may find yourself walking around singing the furiously catchy intro to this song and generally wierding out people at bus stops. Then the album rolls straight into the far more laid back clean tones of Velocity of Love. Jack Terricloth's vocals on this track are so slick they have many of the qualities of maple syrup; I don't think any other vocalist could do the songs justice without his thick accent.

You could say the lyrics of the album are based mainly on love, drunkenness and fighting. Some songs are based on characters that run through the World/Inferno back catalogue: listen to Me V. Angry Mob if you want to know what a guy singing a book to a klezmer backing track sounds like (surprisingly good, as well as interesting and amusing) All this is infused with punk culture references, especially the dedication to a beautiful yet unattainable punk girl that is Only Anarchists Are Pretty. Despite the variety of instruments, this album is by no means pretentious. The accordion parts lend folk qualities and the saxophones help swing everything along, although if I had a complaint it would be that they muffle the guitar. The guitar solo on The Devil's Ball is bizarrely genius though.

I think that the art of getting as many words out your mouth as possible in as short a time as possible has been lost recently, but this is not so with World/Inferno Friendship Society; the absolutely mind-boggling Annie The Imaginary Lawyer would twist any lesser vocalists tongue beyond recognition. There is excellent use of backing vocals which really add to the choruses and other climatic parts of the songs, they add to the drama of it all.

One of my favourite aspects of this album is the sheer variety of songs on this album. There's all speeds from fast (Annie) to slow (Hothouse Flowers), there's even the acoustic guitar and vocal only Please My Favourite Don't Be Sad. Some tracks are very punk, some more bluesy, some completely unclassifiable. That's the best part about this album: you don't get bored while listening to it, it's not repetitive, and it's completely World/Inferno's own style. To use a complete cliché: they're unique!

If this is anything to go by, their latest album - Addicted to Bad Ideas - should be a corker!