This Glasgow four-piece received huge critical praise for the single Daddy's Gone. The song was a thing of rare beauty, a reverb-heavy doo-wop ballad with heartbreaking lyrics about an absent father. The revelation was that if you thought that all the lost-love songs had been written, then you were wrong.

For many listeners it was a hair-standing-up-on-the-back-of-the-neck moment. Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis, reportedly said that she wanted to cover the track - which should, if it happens, make for a great slice of soft rock with deep psychological undertones.

The song was just one of many similarly crafted anthems that appeared on Glasvegas's much-circulated Home Tapes demos. These showed a band with stadium-ready tunes that judiciously combined big choruses, edgy atmospherics and heart-tugging lyrics.

What added to the songs' charm was that the band stood utterly apart from their peers. They had rockabilly quiffs, clothes from a Velvet Underground thrift store and an aesthetic burnt with the spirit of growing up in a neglected working-class town. In an industry that was obsessed with legitimacy, here was a band that was definitely 4 Real.

These factors and the band's ability to synthesise a smouldering mass of influences (from the Ronettes to My Bloody Valentine) made them most similar in spirit to their fellow Scots the Jesus and Mary Chain.

The news that the band had chosen to travel to New York to record with the Muse producer Rich Cosley made many fearful that their lo-fi warmth would be polished away. Instead, Cosley gives the songs room to breathe and allows the singer James Allan a bigger stage to show off his complicated personality - bruised heart mixed with a bruiser's persona. He goes from confessing, “I feel so guilty about the things I said to my mum when I was ten years old” (It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry) to chanting, “Here we f***ing go!” on Go Square Go. The tragic “Blade Britain” lyrics of Stabbed are underlined with the Moonlight Sonata.

A Zeitgeist-nailing debut it may be, but Glasvegas packs enough emotional punch to ensure that it stands the test of time.

(SonyBMG, TMS 11.99, call 0845 6026328)

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