Firstly, we have no idea whether the fact that their previous singles do not appear on this CD is deliberate or not. But if it is, fair play to Baptiste - The Factory / Sarah / Belle & Sebastian tradition of no singles on albums, and the rest, may be "played out" now as far as the "indie scene" is concerned, let alone anyone else, but we still respect it, in our obviously luddite way.

The first track "You Know Everything" marauds through the night with vim, incorporating not only the album title but also finishing with a repeated, brutal "this is just the way we live" from singer and songwriter Wayne Gooderham. You will remember 14 Iced Bears at their rockiest (the '45 "Hold On") ramming home "we were not born to live out empty lives" and this rings in our ears with similar gusto - full of "Deer Park" keyboards and dusky guitar hooks, the song is an incitement not to waste our three score and ten, and to celebrate the fact that in life we must learn not only to cherish but also to destroy. It makes the case for both with admirable purpose. After it, "Living Horizontally" and "Confessions Of A Clumsy Man" teeter around a slower, deliberate post-VU burn, while the rumbustious "Give A Man Four Walls Long Enough And It Is Possible For Him To Own The World" is unfortunately - like most recent b-side "A Worthy Grudge Is A Beautiful Thing" - an instrumental. Vivacious as it is, given Gooderham's lyrical ability this seems a missed opportunity. But only "The Half Light" is a real disappointment to us - forced and gothic, it doesn't seem to fit his vocal style, or to put sufficient space between Baptiste and some of their less inspired contemporaries. so it's the last three songs that really realise Baptiste's potential.

"Some Would Call It Drowning" deliberately hones an unassuming chord sequence, further developing the album's themes ("as the depths rise above our necks / we learn to live even faster", but crucially "losing hope just makes us stronger") while building first into a fine organ-led instrumental passage, then a squall of blissed-out noise, and finally a comedown of soft trumpet overlaid on the suddenly subdued guitars. then, "Tired Bodies" simmers quietly, gnawing at your insides before Gooderham administers a distillation of "things you know at 5 a.m. / listening to the rain" in a series of weary, wistful lyrical maxims strung out over all of nine minutes. And to finish, "Love In A Southern City" spins wonderfully on a pop axis not so far from their last single "Kissing With Your Eyes Open". In this lyrically and musically divine closer, Gooderham moves progressively closer to sounding like tim best (somewhere between girl of the world's early wide-eyed pop innocence and best's later, darker, rockier solo milieu), and the band seem to be enjoying themselves too. Rarely has there been such an unrepentant pop song which can still ensure your rapt and undivided attention even over six minutes: only Ego's Stellar "Under A Tree" really springs to mind.

So our minor quibbles aside, Baptiste should be congratulated for taking their time and making an ambitiously crafted, well recorded first album. Most importantly, it's enthralling to see a Lndon band who eschew the ephemerality of the London media obsessions, but whose songs still reflect the heady rushes - hope from despair and vice versa - that living in this city can bring.

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