ATHLETE breeze through this wonderfully melodic debut as smoothly as a hop, skip and a jump.

But the development of the Deptford foursome has been far from easy. Originally a trio called Cub, the brave lads backed out on the verge of being signed.

They felt their music was like every other indie band and, more importantly, wasn't really them. Scrapping all their songs and taking on keyboard player Tim Wanstall, they went to ground and re-emerged as Athlete.

The songs merge a Gomez-like quirkiness, dreamy melodies and harmonies to die for. Gentle vocalist Joel Pott is one of the finds of the year.

The title track is a classically catchy pop-rock song, while Shake Those Windows makes the world seem a better place.

The struggle to be signed is tackled on the uplifting El Salvador and You Got The Style is an intelligent look at last year's race riots. A real gold medal winner of an album.

Updated: 11:58 Thursday, April 17, 2003