Given their snazzy hair-dos and fancy clothing, it’s no surprise that in the past the sometime (okay, all-the-time) fickle English music press has pilloried Welsh sextet Lostprophets. Given some of the venom spawned in the likes of NME at the band, you’d be forgiven for thinking they were the most abhorrent manufacted creation on earth, rather than a group who’ve slogged away and worked hard to get where they are.

The band look as stylish and stylised as ever in the slick that accompanies their third album, Liberation Transmission. But in the gap between this release and previous album Start Something the English public has caught up, and they’ve adopted emo like the Americans did almost a decade ago. As such, it seems that Lostprophets, already with a following both at home and abroad, seem likely to bridge the gap between promising potential and mega-popularity.

The energy in Liberation Transmission is palpable – the band have further tightened their sound on their third album, but the pop hooks still shine through on the likes of “A Town Called Hypocrisy” and the strong single “Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)”. Everything about Liberation Transmission is anthemic; the songs are big, the choruses are bigger, and the band have the good sense to keep it tight and taut, with only opener “Everyday Combat” lasting beyond five minutes, and the album clocking in under fifty overall.

“The New Transmission” possibly echoes the sounds of Green Day a touch too much, but for the most part Liberation Transmission is impressive because it shows Lostprophets as having a sound that’s their own – they borrow elements from the emo that Americans call their own, but meld it with the pop nous of British acts. This is what sets Lostprophets apart, and what will see them continuing to succeed where other bands fade away.