The single ‘Hard To Beat’ by English lads Hard-Fi is one that is definitely not hard to beat. It’s another indie/electro-pop serving from a British band that surprisingly doesn’t start with “The”. It is by far nothing memorable but rather something that you unfortunately do remember as its upbeat tempo, funk guitar playing, high repetition of lyrics and feel-good vibe penetrates into your brain within a minute of the song commencing. If you can accept it for what it is, extremely cheesy Brit-Pop, it is really a rather enjoyable tune. It’s a great track to dance and sing along to, the lyrics of boy likes a girl at a club, asks her to dance and the rest is all history, all summed up by ‘Giiiirrrrllll you’ve got/Something I liiiiiiiike’/. The vocals are young, friendly, fresh, confident (though not cocky) and very casual. This track would come close to a tune by The Streets if sped up and a touch of disco was added. It’s little wonder Hard-Fi have toured extensively with Kaiserchiefs with sounds like this.

The first B-Side, ‘Stronger’ again features simple, heavily repeated lyrics ‘I’m getting stronger every day/We keep on getting stronger/Stronger!’. Overall the sound of the song is perky and more poppy than the first track, though they do not quite execute this sound as successfully as a band such as The Coral. Talking of successful bands, the third track off the single is a cover of The White Stripes’ ‘Seven Nation Army’. The introduction of their cover is relatively promising, it is poppy with whistles that remind you of Jens Lekman, and then it fuses into a beat similar to that of The Specials’ ‘Ghost Town’. Though regrettably that is where the excitement ends. The lyrics are sung in exactly the same manner as Jack White, and oddly the instrumentation between the verses sounds like a traffic jam. By the sounds of these three tunes, Hard-Fi is a very pleasing band, though it’s best to listen to them without great expectations.