Ah, the glories of POP. Too many bands are afraid of that three letter word, but Luxembourg grab it and hold it to their foppish chests. They love pop and if you have any love for the art, you’ll fucking LOVE ‘Front’.

If you’re unfamiliar with Luxembourg, looking at the cover and photos inside, you might imagine the album will be a fey and delicate affair, but as the instrumental Le14 gives way to the full frontal attack of ‘Faint Praise’, you realise that the battlelines have been drawn and these five foot soldiers are ready to fight for their art and you’re immersed in a world where Pulp clash with the ferocity of early Suede while Morrissey stands by nodding his head at the brilliance of lyrics such as “I’ll break and enter your apartment inventorising all your failings”.

Live favourite ‘What The Housewives Don’t Tell You’ bleeds into the excellent ‘Single’ where the album’s themes are summed up by David Shah’s aching “Now my friends are starting on families, I’ve barely started on mine”. If this man is not on the NME’s 50 coolest list next year, you should ask for your money back.

‘Making Progress’ remains our favourite Lux anthem and we haven’t even got to the classic single ‘Luxembourg VS Great Britain’ yet, a song tucked away near the end of the record, where most bands would use it to kick off proceedings, but that’s the point with Luxembourg, for every smash hit solid gold pop classic, they’ve got another one up their nylon sleeves.

With the demise of Suede, Pulp et al, the world is crying out for a new breed of pop intelligencia to idolise – well, look no further, the Luxembourg army is recruiting and with ‘Front’ as their sonic manifesto, we suggest signing up immediately. Brilliant.