The Courteeners

The Courteeners hit the ground running. The Manchester band's 2008 debut album, St Jude, was a Top 10 hit and won the group a fervently committed fanbase that powered its adrenaline-fuelled songs of doomed provincial love to triumph in the Guardian's inaugural First Album awards. Falcon, the recent follow-up to St Jude, has achieved a similar degree of commercial success and has seen the four-piece sell out the 10,000-capacity Manchester Central venue. The Courteeners contain trace elements of three of their home city's most revered musical icons – the Smiths, the Stone Roses and Oasis – and have won the love of a generation who are too young to have seen the first two and are still pining for the loss of the last. Hard-working and sincere, they are more than the lads' band their critics pin them as but, in truth, only a little more. Band talisman, singer and songwriter Liam Fray has been honing his craft: Falcon is far superior to its predecessor. There is a new subtlety in tracks such as The Opener, with its Johnny Marr-like shimmer, and recent single You Overdid It Doll. His charisma carries the set through lean spells such as Sycophant, aimed at the group's journalistic detractors, and the mawkish and clunky Cross My Heart & Hope to Fly. There is little pop magic or quicksilver inspiration, but the Courteeners seem set to prosper on elbow grease alone, and a crowd-pleasing encore of Not Nineteen Forever and What Took You So Long? triggers a mass sing-along. Fifteen minutes later, the chorus is still being bawled along Brixton Road. At Academy, Newcastle upon Tyne (0844 477 2000), tonight. Then touring. Details: thecourteeners.com .