How things change over the course of a year. When Good Shoes released We Are Not The Same they were easy to dismiss as actually being pretty similar to any number of bands. Not that the band have changed direction at all: the new wave elements that found us making comparisons with The Futureheads or Gang of Four are all still very much in place.
Never Meant To Hurt You finds the band in fine form. It's tight and spiky and rumbles along with an infectious vigour. "Do you ever feel like you've broken someone's heart?" enquires singer Rhys Jones sounding for all the world like Howard Devoto, which can only be a good thing.
What follows is a familiar trip through the trials and tribulations of everyday life: but at least it's got a decent soundtrack. More importantly is the fact that Never Meant To Hurt You finds a band hitting a rich vein of form that raises them above all those other bands that simply sound a bit like Gang of Four or The Futureheads.
