Cymbals Eat Guitars create what was once called ‘college rock’. Taking nods from Mountain Goats and Destroyer one moment, and Robert Pollard and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah the next, Why There Are Mountains is a welcome departure from much of the music piped our way in 2009.

Theoretically, at least, Cymbals Eat Guitars do nothing new. Opener ‘…And the Hazy Sea’ hints at Broken Social Scene, big riffs, brass and a tendency to explode with little warning into jagged, desperate sounding implorations. Despite clocking in at (just) over six minutes, there is no drag here – proving that there is eloquence in screaming.

Elsewhere the record packs more pace; the immediacy which ‘…And the Hazy Sea’ lacks is made up for in the beautiful but brief, ‘Some Trees (Merrit Moon)’. ‘Shades of Guided by Voices’ meet the syncopated vocals of Cedric Bixler in his heyday, this is an intense pop hit delivered in under three minutes.

The record takes in so much more than slacker style; the pure pop joy of the Elephant 6 collective springs up with the gorgeous but rambling ‘Wind Phoenix (Real Name)’. Here they take the whim and brass of Elephant 6 and combine it with the Staten Island four-piece’s youthful exuberance.

Yet there is a problem here. The visions build into epic soundscapes, but for all the boys ballsyness at the end of ever track they just chicken out – fading out rather than a shot to the spine killing the song in its stride. Ok, so this is a minor thing, a ridiculous thing, but for such a record to succeed it has to take risks.

Cymbals Eat Guitars have youth on their side; brassy, ballsy alt. rock is swathed in ambition and, for the most part it delivers. Why There Are Mountains is testament to the cockroach like survival of the DIY scene, or at least aesthetic. This is no revolution but it is bloody good fun.

Will Metcalfe