Milburn - Cheshire Cat Smile

If you're hoping to get your band a record deal, it probably doesn't hurt to have grown on the same Sheffield estate as the Arctic Monkeys. Milburn's similarities to this year's music industry sensation don't end in their shared postcode. The annoyingly youthful school-leavers also employ the Monkeys' 'working-class but well read' lyricism in Cheshire Cat Smile, with lines such as 'pass me the book and I'll read you a sonnet'. Some deliberately off-kilter fret-work, combined with their modest ear for a tune, makes this a likeable song. Time to put those university places on hold perhaps. [Nick Mitchell]