The Days Run Away was produced by Bernard Butler, who hadn't worked with guitar bands for a while before he was brought in by Frankie & the Heartstrings for their second album. Perhaps Butler may have seen, in singer Frankie Francis, the kind of intense frontman with whom he's always gelled – Francis's insistent yelp is certainly the main event here. Without him, the 11 quickfire tracks would have decidedly less personality, though even then there are moments so featureless that you could be listening to any bunch of second-tier janglers from the View to Cast. More happily, the influence of fellow north-easterners the Futureheads is felt in I Still Follow You's serrated guitars, while That Girl, That Scene is an engagingly hysterical rewrite of the Only Ones' Another Girl, Another Planet. Notably, this is one of the rare albums where the best track is a ballad: Losing a Friend condenses their warm-hearted tunefulness into four lovely minutes.