With its most charming qualities still intact, U.K.'s the Futureheads have survived being dropped by a major label. After an excellent debut and disappointing follow-up for Warner Bros. subsidiary 679 Recordings, the quartet returns on its own label and moves closer to the buoyant choruses that caught our interests in the first place. "I roll with the punches and make the most of it," singer-guitarist Barry Hyde sings on finale "See What You Want," and that's as good a description as any of This Is Not the World. First singles "The Beginning of the Twist" and "Broke Up the Time" careen around stabbing power chords and urgently shouted backing vocals. But it's lonely mid-tempo rocker "Hard to Bear" that sounds like the biggest potential hit, with acoustic strums and pattering drums that evoke Modern English's "Melt with You." In today's crowded media environment, it's always tough for a once-hyped band to maintain a lasting audience (remember Franz Ferdinand?), but the Futureheads' moment hasn't passed just yet.

-- Marc Hogan