Uptempo northern twee-pop full of handclaps and 'la's, highly-singable choruses and true-to-life lyrics, The Loyal Trooper's 4 Quid With Flyer EP walks a line between a one-man Midget and a less-dramatic My Life Story.

"To me my songs are about more than just being antiquated statements about a lass in my youth", runs opening track 'I’m Not In Love', as he lays into bands who sing about getting dumped all the time before proclaiming in the chorus that he can’t do the same for he isn’t in love himself. The theme of this Trooper being an actual person – and he is, his name’s Andy Walker – runs strongly throughout, and for a while it’s suitably catchy, with Walker’s voice sharing a few of Brian Molko’s back-of-the-throat vocal qualities, although rough round the edges at times.

But for all its promise, there are too many moments where The Loyal Trooper shoots himself in the foot. 'Nothing To Say' has some Streets-esque reallyfasttalking over the verses which doesn’t really fit with the rest of the song, and makes him sounds a bit like the meek cannabis user from Skinner's 'The Irony Of It All', and for all of his harping on in the opener, closing track 'That One About The Mistletoe' is indeed about the very subject the Trooper earlier ridiculed; a sickly love song about a girl from the past with just one electric guitar and one uncomfortably strained vocal line, complete with a dedication at the start and signing off with "I love you Rachel".

It’s a confusing, borderline-horrendous finish to an EP lined with promise, but one which ultimately can’t be ignored. The mistakes are all fairly obvious ones though, and presumably easily rectified, so whilst 4 Quid With Flyer probably isn’t worth going out of your way to hear, it at least suggests everything is not yet lost.