The cherubic young girl on the cover of Giant Drag's album may imply that this is the latest in the long line of manufactured female stars to grace the pop industry. Fortunately - for the listeners, if not for her own sanity - the subject appears to be sticking a knife into her thigh. For this lady, Annie Hardy, together with songwriting partner and guitarist Micah Calabrese, makes the kind of music which offers almost a female equivalent to Placebo. In fact Hardy even sounds like Brian Molko and the likelihood is Giant Drag's music will attract its own fair share of lovers of teenage angst. Where this duo differ, however, is that they use My Bloody Valentine's box of tricks; serving up their melodies through an effects blender which Kevin Shields has already approved of. 'Hearts And Unicorns' can be split in to three types of songs - uncommercial noise ('High Friends In Places', 'My D*** S***'), plenty of fuzzed-up guitar pop ('Kevin Is Gay' and 'You're Full Of S***' being the best examples) and a neat line of introspective material ('Cordial Invitation', 'Slayer', 'Smashing'). There is a sense that some of this ground has been covered before and Hardy's saccharine vocals do occasionally grate but the image, spirit and tuneful hooks will leave many audiences gasping for more.