Certain albums are clearly written about pop music lovers, for pop music lovers, by pop music lovers. This is just such an album, and there are few things more irresistible.

Under Achievers Please Try Harder is the diary of... wait, no, it's like my diary when I was 15, in musical form, weaving tales of adolescent social angst and passion for music ("Now you're skipping school going to listen to records/wrapped up in mohair dissing your elders") over a charming backdrop of mellow guitar-pop. These songs were written to be included on painstakingly constructed "Songs That Soundtracked My Year" lists or put on mixtapes for that certain someone in your English class in the hope of winning their affections - many of the tracks on here are bashful odes to, laments over or pithy jibes at some sensitive indie boy (bless 'em)... A little self-indulgent? Perhaps, but there's nothing wrong with writing about what you know, and it makes for damn good listening.

Musically, you'll rarely hear Camera Obscura described without reference to Belle and Sebastian - their breath-taking 2001 single Eighties Fan was produced by Stuart Murdoch and their debut album Biggest Bluest Hifi is in places a lot like a B&S with female vocals - and though the influence is nothing if not obvious, it's not off-putting (unless, of course, you really dislike B&S, but how could you?) and with this album their sound has readjusted itself a little. Several of the songs give a nod to Motown and 50s pop (the lyrics to "Let Me Go Home" even mention the Supremes and the Temptations), and although at times it errs slightly on the side of cheesiness, overall it is a well-produced, compelling pop record.

You might think that the "school" theme that runs through the album (with song titles like "Suspended From Class", and of course the album title itself) might make it a little unsophisticated, a little too sophomoric, but there's no lack of maturity or ability in the crafting of these songs. Instead it brings a refreshing youthfulness which is lacking in a lot of indie music, combining dry wit and cynicism with an underlying sense of optimism. If anything it serves to remind us that we might not be teenagers anymore, but if we're honest we haven't changed all that much, we're still stumbling slightly awkwardly in no particular direction, still in love with our record collections, still slowly learning how to relate to each other and, above all, we still know that a song says it best. This is an album full of exceptional ones. Go put them on a mixtape for someone you like.

-Hannah Wright