IV Thieves: Nic Armstrong, Jonny Aitken, Shane Lawlor, Glynn Wedgewood.
Audio Mixer: Chris Sheldon.
The IV Thieves' front man Nic Armstrong channels some pretty paranoid lyrics through his stratospheric vocals on this assured second album, while his band plays jangly guitar pop with an eye to the past and a yen for the future. The best cuts here, like the trippy "Higher" and the churning "You Can't Love What You Don't Understand," combine the 1960s psychedelia of the Pretty Things with the artful harmonies of the Hollies.

Uncut (p.80) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[The album] boasts dreamy psych-laments, titanium-heavy riffola, and a relentless urgency..."
CMJ (p.5) - "They summon some snake-crawling swagger, but their bread and butter are the John Lennon-on-and-on hook jobs we expect England to grace us with every eight months or so."
No Depression (p.131) - "IF WE CAN'T ESCAPE is just a big old glorious and unabashed guitar-rock pop record."