Can you tell I liked it?

An extended version follows, and at seven and a half minutes, is the sonic equivalent of a multiple orgasm ("careful now, sir" - the Pretention Police). "Sleepy Little Sunshine Boy" is next, a rootsier thing made of blue-lit cigarette smoke and the aftertaste of red wine. Equal to anything the Stone Roses did at their height, this is a-side material masquerading as a lowly b, and features possibly the best guitar break in the world ever.

The video to "Forever" completes a package that refuses to come out of my CD player, as the machine - like me - has fallen in love with it.

Rating: 10/10

Six (count 'em) b-sides, making this as likely to chart as one of my band's singles (both facts being a crying shame...) "Your Time To Change" is up first, a spikier, more surreal and typically more Pavement thing, and sounds like what The Monkees would be up to had they had today's drugs at their disposal to experiment with. "Stub Your Toe" is wonderful, a Californian sunshine-soaked buzz pop gem that motors along like the Banana Splits in their Banana Buggies. A demo of "Major Leagues" takes the stage next, and is almost as gorgeous as it's more fully-developed sibling. Without the strings though, it is always going to be the one left without a date to the prom.

"Decouvert De Soleil" shoulders its way to the front next, and is the most leftfield and - dare I say it - wacky number on offer here. Blown-bottle synth sounds frame a French spoken-word lyric that is punctuated with an English chorus, falsetto lyrics and much bizarreness, including the soon-to-be-a-t-shirt-slogan lyric "motherfucking crytpographic repositing in schmuck talk tick tock", which is right up there with "kicking squealing Gucci little piggy" in my opinion.

Two covers to close with. The first is a wonderfully languid and sensual version of Echo & The Bunnymen's "Killing Moon", almost achieving the impossible and bettering the original. Then on marches The Fall's "The Classical", a wry choice, as this is the band Pavement were often accused of ripping off in the early days. Introduced as "an old family favourite", it takes the original by the throat and chokes middle American vocals out of its fag-ravaged throat. Marky Mark would approve.

Rating: 9/10

"Mr Voyeur" follows, a trance-ish yet spikey ball of electronic pulsing lights and circuits that flits around your room like that thing Luke Skywalker used to practice his lightsaber on (tortuous metaphors 'R' us). The "Slam Pressure Funk Mix" of the A closes things, and houses the original up into a scarcely recognisable leather-clad dominatrix of a track, one that will have you on your knees and begging for mercy with its teutonic beats and sledgehammer bass. Which is definitely nothing like what she used to be like in history classes.

Rating: 8/10

Whatever. The likes of "Jesse Be Strong" are - like it or not - what defines the musical world we live in: shiny, sparkling, unpretentious and fun pop Golden Nuggets that sparkle like diamonds amidst the tedious and dreary workmanlike guitar bands that try to convince you they are more worthy. Screw that, forget about that: get down to B*Witched and their cheesy, wikky wikky wild west pastiche pop and take that studied and over-practiced cheeks-sucked-in pale and interesting look of your little indie face.

The cover of Carly Simon's "Coming Around Again" on the b-side is too much even for me, however. At least the video's also present, so you can analyse the nuances of the girls' line-dancing shenanigans.

Fine - suit yourself. Go and listen to Ocean Colour Scene instead and convince me you're enjoying yourself more.

Rating: 6/10