Having a slow week? Here’s something that’ll help speed things up a little for you. Meet Fast Years. They are from New York. Broadly speaking, there’s a little too much garage-pop around these days, and indeed, the fact that they hail from the same city as The Strokes doesn’t help their case much, but appearances can be deceptive. It’s clear who they take their cues from, but they are considerably more than just a pale imitation of their influences. The track we’ve decided to feature (free download alert!) is entitled Young Heart, and it is an absolute gem, featuring energetic drums, a razor-edged guitar line and some giddy harmonies in its chorus – not to mention some handclaps. The fact that a key line in the song is, ‘Let’s fall apart’ can pretty much be ignored, because the darker tone of the lyrics is offset quite nicely by the uptempo nature of the song. Can you say ‘crowd-pleasing’? They’ve been doing plenty of that recently, as it happens, over in the UK in support of Howler. You could say they’re having a fast year of things, and it’s not even April yet, so there’s plenty of time for more material to surface. Here’s hoping it does.