After a week off for good behaviour, our twisted and bitter round-up of the weeks singles has returned. And it’s a bit of a bumper one this week with releases from established acts such as Maximo Park and Brakes plus debuts from the Manchester Orchestra and Cat The Dog.

We’ll start with the indie-pop of the 1990s. Seemingly intent on wrestling back the ground made by their arch nemesis Franz Ferdinand, You Make Me Like It is a joyous slice of pure pop goodness. Nothing entirely original, but it’s done with such gay abandon that it can do nothing other than put a smile on your face and a spring in your step. No music has a right to be this happy…

This brings things back to black. Cat The Dog with I’m A Romantic. Now, when I first heard this I couldn’t get beyond the Nirvana stylings, even the vocal tics were reminiscent of Cobain. What this suggests though is that the time is right for Nu-Grunge (I’ve named it before the NME does), and it’s dirtier take on music, none of this polished post-Libertines nonsense for the common man. This is for the disenfranchised youth. Get beyond the Nirvana similarities and what you have is a debut single that’s not afraid to be influenced by, and sound like, something else.

Which is more than can be said for Manchester Orchestra. Wolves At Night is their debut single, but this could have been released anytime in the last five years. I’m not saying it’s bad, there’s a cracking riff in the middle, but it doesn’t really stand out from the crowd.

At least Brakes are here to shake us from our slumber. But, wait, they’ve release the title track from last years album, The Beatific Visions, which isn’t one of their more raucous moments. It’s a gentle, jangly slice of guitar-pop that doesn’t really play to their strengths and seems like an odd choice of single to me. Oh well, it’s only on download only…

The weird, left-field choice of the week goes to Neil Burrell with Ooompa Zoompa. No, not the soundtrack to the new Charlie & The Chocolate Factory film, but an oddly addictive slice of Syd Barrett styled anti-folk. The haunting acoustic guitar and sinister synths would make this sit comfortably on Mad Cap Laughs. Flip side Eveyln is a bit more straightforward, but Burrell could be one of the more left-field successes of the year.

It comes as no suprise that Lost and Found, the new single by ex-Concrete Victoria Bergsman (aka Taken By Trees) was penned by none other than Tracy-Ann Campbell, lead singer with Camera Obscura. This hazy, sun drenched slice of joy has the mark of the Scottish popsters all over it, albeit a slightly more subdued version. The lilting strings and accompyiang piano stroll alongside a lovesick Bergsman as she goes out walking to try and clear her head - “this time I’m fearing heartbreak / look at the time it’s almost day break”. Two words; simply devine.

Quite possibly one of the biggest dissapointments of the year thus far was Maximo Park’s second offering, Our Earthly Pleasures. Nothing more than a re-hashed version of their debut, it was uninspired and lacked the bite and immediacy of A Certain Trigger. So much so in fact that it had TLOBF’s Rich Hughes crying into his tea for at least a week. Now, taken out of context of the album, Girls Who Play Guitars isn’t that bad. It has everything you would expect from a Maximo single, jagged guitars, soaring chorus, but it just lacks Paul Smiths lyrical prowess that featured so heavily on the bands debut. Which, for a short time, made them one of the UK’s most promising new act.

The geek in me loves snappy packaging. So when the new single by Yoshi dropped through my letterbox I was suitably impressed with the retro game cartridge stickers plastered on the sleeve. Even better was the music inside. Headphones is a menagerie of styles and influences. Yoshi mix up computer game samples with squelching analog synths and riffing guitars all topped off with cocksure vocals that are talked rather than sung. It really shouldnt work, but it does. A nice little discovery, keep your eyes peeled on these fellas.

The grand vision of Windmill gets a single release in the form of Fit this week. This oblique and symphonic vision of Matthew Thomas Dillon is an acquired taste. The vocals are suspiciously like Kermit The Frog in places, but its a voice brimming with an emotional range that sounds like a thousand hearts breaking at once. A tale of alienation might not seem like a natural choice for a single but it’s one that needs to be heard.

Single of the week though is the second single from Foals. These really are one of the most adventurous and ambitious bands currently gracing the UK music scene. A post-post-punk mish mash of influences from techno to indie to dance to rock. Mathletics is one of their seamlessly woven tunes that wraps all these ideas into one perfect song. The twitching guitar riff, the crackle of drums and the yelped vocals punctuate the positively funky bassline that hints at the fact that you could, quite possibly, dance to this. Brilliant.