To me, The Cooper Temple Clause are the Great British Unrealised Hope. As the Great British Music Press (like The Sun, but with worse record reviews) thrashed about in its never-ending search for the successor to the Next Big Thing to stick at the head of some hitherto non-existent movement, it always seemed to overlook the Coopers, seeing them as one for the future rather than the present. This was bemusing because their debut was one which any music journalist worth their salt should have sat up and taken notice of - spanning traditionally isolated genres with a minimum of self-consciousness and managing to ally innovation and experiment with both a degree of accessibility and great style - See This Through And Leave never really got the attention it deserved, as though the band had been a little too successful in creating the atmosphere of discomfort, mistrust and paranoia suggested by the title which infuses all their best work. It was as though no one could sit comfortably alongside them and on the patchy (although more successful) second album, some of this appeared to have rubbed-off on the band. Hopefully this latest single is not representative of the next album, as this would signify the band having completely lost their nerve. "Waiting Game" resembles nothing so much as a cynical play for commercial success by penning a palatable indie hit. Utterly devoid of any of the playful menace which is the trademark of the Cooper's finer work, this is a decent enough guitar riff over a jangly acoustic guitar which, if not as interesting as it could be would be excusable were it not for the vocal. Ah, the vocal. Cringingly rhymed wistful and apologetic break-up lyrics delivered in a voice which nasally molkos (as in the verb: to [Brian] Molko) in the verses and which recalls some unpleasant memories of Brett Anderson in the horribly contrived 'affirming' britpop chorus. And the video is crap (although I support the sentiment of including it on the single).

The B-side, "Pulling Shapes", isn't so much bad as it's one of those B-sides that sounds like it was always intended to be a B-side (if that makes any sense to you). Intended, I think, to simultaneously display the band's more electronic and chilled-out sides, this isn't actually too bad...er...after the breathy singing stops and one can lose oneself in the pings and swirls somewhat. The question it raises, however, is: "do I really want to hear the mellow side of a band whose greatest attribute is their sleazy, stalkery, slightly psychotic side?". The answer is probably: "yes, but only out of curiosity after they've already delivered the goods". As a package the single is rescued only by a new (at least to a Luddite like me) piece of technology called U-Myx, which (as far as I can tell) allows you to re-mix the single for yourself, save your mixes and (I can't be certain it because, well, Luddite - I still use an analogue four-track for fuck's sake!) I think post your efforts on the internet. In this particular case, of course, this software's greatest value lies in the possibility of utilising it for dropping the lead vocal out of the mix.