Stealers Wheel: Stealers Wheel (A&M AML-34763).

Reviewed by Richard Best.

When you first hear Stealers Wheel from England, you're gonna jump up and down and raise merry hell. If you reckon you ever heard a "derivative band", forget it 'cos Wheel cop them all.

They do the Beatles so well you'd be excused for thinking they'd reformed — and after you've heard the album they'll be the crassest musical plagiarists you know.

Happily they're such a bloody delightful band, you'll forgive them for being so outrageously the stealers they are, fall in love with the music and take it all as Stealers Wheel, period.

What that all means is that Wheel aren't original and they're not brilliant. They're unashamedly stolen left, right and centre and come up with a gloriously zippy album that's better than the Raspberries and quite simply one of the best A-grade Pop records I've heard in a long time.

Leiber and Stoller, one-time producers of the Coasters and Presley, have so Americanised Stealers Wheel they sound as United Stated as Gene Pitney and Lassie, without the gloss and plus a dash of British cuteness.

They've also given you a stingy 28 minutes record time but don't complain. Stealers Wheel are very, very good.

Late Again is the most instantly likeable track with JJ Cale stoned lethargy, some amazingly wooden organ and charming falsetto tail-offs from vocalist Gerry Rafferty.

On Johnny's Song they sound so laid-back, it's almost ridiculous — like maybe they were drunk or tired when recording time came round.

I Get By and Jose are slow rockers. Bread- like in construction and if that puts you off, the guitar on I Get By has been pushed so far forward it's shattering.

And then there's Stuck in the Middle With You, the hit song in America. Short, tense and bittersweet: I don't know why I came here tonight/ I got the feeling that something ain't right/ I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair/And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs/ Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right/Here I am, stuck in the middle with you/And I'm wondering what I should do.

Buy this album if only for Late Again and Stuck in the Middle: a lot to pay for six minutes and none of your friends will take you to tea for it. If you want half an hour of Good Clean Stuff, it's better than anything you've bought this year and you'll like it. Promise.