We first introduced you to Swindon lads Talk In Code just over a year ago when we came across their debut EP. Since then they’ve been busy lads, supporting Captain, Boy Kill Boy and the amazing Idlewild. They haven’t got a record or management deal just yet, but that doesn’t show on their second coming, the four track “Friends Close, Enemies Closer”.

So what’s changed musically? Well, they’re much more padded out, sound much more “complete”, obviously having spent a long time practising.

Strangely, the collection starts off with the most generic of the tracks, “Swings and Roundabouts”, with a nice piano driven chorus that sounds distinctly like Keane experimenting with guitars… good, but nothing to write home about.

The real collection starts with “Not how it seems”, which has a distinctly chart-worthy feel in the vein of One Night Only and co. One to get the audience to yell along with, it could well prove to be the best track of the collection. “What Comes As No Surprise” would be a good end of the night closer, anthemic but not too drawn out, just the right mix of guitars and drums and vocals with a few nice flourishes on the keys.

Overall, a good and strong collection showing distinct promise. I can’t help but wonder where these lads will be in another year’s time… at this rate come 2010 they’ll be playing sold out headlining tours around the UK - they certainly deserve to.

Few bands sound as polished on their debut demos as Talk in Code. Sounding like an amped up Keane after a night on the lash with the Chili Peppers (could Tom Chaplin manage that without a rehab trip? We’ll leave that to your imagination…), their demo CD may be only three tracks long, but they manage to fit in all of their strengths (and a few weaknesses as well for good measure).

Opener “Dry Emotion” starts off fast paced, and keeps it going throughout, though the last minute could probably have been done away with, as they loop around again… but that could just be me…

“First Mistake” would have passed for an early U2 demo… professional and polished, stadium bound, yet missing that magical something you can’t quite put your finger on. Lyrically they’re one step up from emo teenagers in their room, but still one step down from the abstract story-telling of U2… lyrics such as “Don’t say it all again / I came back from way back when / I’ve made the first mistake” display real yearning, yet still seem relatively weak.

Closer “Suddenly Overcome” slows things down for a phones-in-the-air moment that would make some more experienced bands beg for. A consistent collection, the songs are all excellent, however lack one song that make you think “yes, that’s a single” (like Scouting For Girls recently did with “It’s Not About You”, blowing all their other tracks out of the water). They sound like an earlier U2 mixed with Doves and Morning Runner, so be sure to check them out if you like your music with feeling, yet epic and stadium fillingly-good.

Perhaps one of the biggest downsides to this polished debut is that it’s a bit too polished – from their myspace band description that mentions early “brainstorming sessions” (how corporate) to the tracks, you can’t help but feel that they already have some industry clout behind them that we haven’t been told about.

Check them out and put them in your favourites to go and see this autumn, or come back next year when they’ve developed a bit more.