After creating something of a buzz on the internet with their debut single ‘Lolly’ in April, Monocle Rose are hoping to climb the ladder of indie success with their follow-up, ‘Alley Cat’, and it’s turned out to be a bit of a pop choon. After the first listen, I was humming this little ditty for the rest of the day. It’s very pretty, in a punk with nice harmonies kind of way. It’s also very ‘90s, but as we know from the recent success of bands like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Teenage Fanclub-a-likes Exlovers making their way out of the woodwork, they seem to be just in time to ride the rock-band wagon.

The lead singer Rosa sounds just like, and I mean JUST like, leading lady of The Duke Spirit Leila Moss, but the band’s sound as a whole is much more punk and much more garage. Looking at them, they’re straight out of the riot grrrl movement, with red Doctor Martins, punk hairdos and tattoos aplenty, but their songs are more pop niceties than screaming feminism. They remind me a bit, and this is meant in the best possible way, of Lauren Laverne’s band Kenickie – remember them? It’s the tongue-in-cheek punkiness, the knowing irony of looking and being ‘alternative’ when the ‘alternative’ trend is anything but. They’ve got fun and a bit of pisstake about them, and seem to write fairly decent, catchy pop songs.

The b-side, ‘It’s A Kick’, isn’t as strong as the title track, but what can we expect from a b-side? It’s got the same clever singalong harmonies and grungy guitar hooks as ‘Alley Cat’, but doesn’t have as much of a catchy melody.

If your time was the 90s, and, like me, you used to love bands like Elastica because they were punk enough to be cool but pop enough to sing songs that sounded cute, Monocle Rose will take you back. They may not be as youthful or sprightly as some bands hanging around in East and North London at the minute, but at least they sound like they know what they’re doing.