Perfectly timed to slip effortlessly on to pre-teen Christmas lists come albums from two of Britain's most chart-friendly, US-conscious boy bands.

Green Day wannabes Busted cut a riotous path through 15, three-minute, pogo-inducing slabs of "leave the brain at home" skate punk. If Busted were a film it is safe to assume they would not be The Usual Suspects.

Dumb And Dumber and American Pie spring to mind, because tracks such as Air Hostess ("I messed my pants as we flew over France") and She Wants To Be Me (Psycho girlfriend engulfed by personality of Busted lead singer Charlie Simpson), zip through the turbulent world of playground politics in a nanosecond. That's what saves this self-penned release from a real panning - it's over too fast to hate. Just remember kids: the scattering of slow songs are rubbish and the Buzzcocks did the faster ones a trillion times better.

Blazin' Squad, meanwhile, also appear to be gorging themselves on Freedom Fries to capture an authentic US of A sound.

Booming production and whirlwind rap kick-start a promising opening. But a lacklustre finale is proceeded by a miserable interlude of ill-chosen 'covers'. Whoever advised the London ten-piece to rap over T.-Rex's Children Of The Revolution and The Commodores' Easy Like Sunday Morning, should be shot.

A real mixed bag - veering from shades of Public Enemy to public health hazard - from a band yet to reschedule two cancelled York gigs.

Updated: 09:03 Thursday, November 27, 2003