View frontman Kyle Falconer's description of his band's fourth album as "Fleetwood Mac's Rumours done by the Clash" will invite scorn, but "sprightly melodies executed with a hint of a sneer" wouldn't have conveyed the message quite so catchily. The Dundee group's metier is still the combining of rattling guitar-rock with lyrics that show greater empathy and self-awareness than you might expect – as ever, though, the words are swamped by the band's let's-rock boisterousness – and Falconer's adenoidal vocals are a scrawny counterpoint to the glossiness of Mike (Razorlight) Crossey's production. That's no bad thing on the sweet little Tacky Tattoo, which cuts through the gloss to ambivalently count the cost of an extramarital affair, but it's wince-inducing on the pints-aloft chants How Long and AB (We Need Treatment). Despite such patchiness, and a new propensity for ass-kicking rock statements (Bullet) that would sound more persuasive in the hands of Kings of Leon (whose producer, Angelo Petraglia, co-wrote several tracks), Cheeky for a Reason is just interesting enough to tide them over until guitars come back into fashion.