What’s in a name? Well, Notts-based lads Matt Oakes on lead vocals, guitarist/vocalist Rob Sadler, Jon Dix on guitar, bassist Matthew Dix, and Pete Jones on drums, were originally called LED. According to Dix, “We didn’t want it to stand for Light Emitting Diode ‘cos that’s a bit dull. I like what we came up with though. It’s kinda hippy in its utopian sense.”

Oakes sings with an urgency last heard in a young, tortured Morrissey. Backed by deceptively shambolic guitar, Entwistle-esque bass and precision drumming from the boy Jones, ‘Ladders’ is apparently “all about the trials you go through as a teenager when trying to lose your virginity.” It’s also, so the band claim, “the closest we've ever come to achieving the sound we want.”

What’s in a name? Former label-mates of Bloc Party, with ‘Ladders’ Love Ends Disaster! look like taking a step (up) in the right direction. Just watch them scale the heights.
(3½/5)