2003. Jaysus. The bleak future we’ve never really cared about is here already. You know what it’s all about. We're not supposed to talk one to one another any more, we're not supposed to know where to turn for worthwhile human contact. And society as a whole is meant to be so fragmented that we ought not be able to understand ourselves as social beings. Well, maybe. But if all of this is true, we're all pretty much stuck creating adventure and passion inside our own heads. Think Donnie Darko. Or Holden Caufield, if you really have to. Because the post-modern world is nothing new, after all.

Whatever it means, Medium 21 have 21st Century anxiety in spades. “I can’t get a simple fucking thing to come out of this throat,” John Clough proclaims. Alright, then. ‘Daybreak vs Pride’ sounds a lot like Echo and the Bunnymen – bitter, abstract and confused – and its trembling minor chords don't half recall ‘Killing Moon’. It's a whispered plea for a way to communicate more clearly. And it's fine as it goes - there's more to like here than dislike - but if there's a point to making 2003 sound like 1983, Medium 21 don't quite succeed in getting it across.