by Nitsuh AbebeCasino Classics, the album that preceded Sneaky, managed to combine the hooky songwriting and shambling charm of the Pastels, Vaselines, Television Personalities and every other great British indie group. Sneaky, for some reason, lacks the outright charm of its predecessors, but this seems to be the result of a higher level of ambition on the band's part -- the album's production is cleaner and a lot more present, and the songwriting lays off of the straight-out pop in order to try its hand at Jam-style soul touches ("Strength") and thoroughly punk sounds ("Language of the Spy"). This makes Sneaky a definite step forward, but it also sacrifices a bit of the pure charm of Casino Classics -- when that sound is resurrected on tracks like"These Are the Dreams of the Working Girl," the band hints at a combination of indie sweetness and polished maturity that the band can hopefully follow up on.