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Age of Austere

The last few weeks have seen an explosion of British and American indie albums that are each jostling to sound more like a band from the 80s or early 90s than the rest.  The latest group to arrive with a load of fun, upbeat and quirky tunes, marked out with a slightly more inventive look and style than most, is The Joy Formidable.  Their debut single, "Austere", could hardly be more of a college rock response to the Coalition cuts if it tried - its zest and punchy flavour not austere at all, confirming there is fizz still in the broken vessels of the state.

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