Well, it's better than Britney

You can tell from the cover that she'll like it. Your little sister, that is. When you're faced with choosing between Britney Spears and Basement Jaxx for a birthday present, Basement Jaxx wins every time. And not just with your nine-year-old siblings.

The reason for this? Because it's good. And it will satisfy her girly-pop yearnings too.

Don't be fooled by the XL Records logo on the back, Basement Jaxx's DJ-project-esque name, or the 'dance' section of the record shop that you'll find this album in. This is pop music, pure and simple. Herein lie twelve songs of the three-and-a-half-minute variety, in which suitably girly female vocalists sing paddling pool-shallow lyrics, over some programmed beat and sample arrangements. But don't let that put you off.

Basement Jaxx originally broke through with the hit 'Red Alert' – a song whose production leant towards the "dum-tiss-dum-tiss" end of drum programming; hence their now 'club-friendly' status. Critics creamed themselves over Jaxx's pre-acid influences - seventies and eighties disco, Latin American samba... Like no-one's used a Chic sample before. What really separates Basement Jaxx from these other, supposedly clubby pop outlets, is the production. The perfectionistic quality of the sound processing (compression, effects and stuff), the sheer attention to detail of what's going on in the background behind the vocals and the drums (and the rhythms and vocal arrangements themselves), all suggest more in common with Mouse on Mars than Modjo. Squelches and noise samples jitter about in the background, little things which mean there's always something new to discover with every listen to each track.

Rooty begins with the single 'Romeo'; at first glance it shares the naff 'love lost' lyrics and synthy horn riff that manage to make it sound, rather chillingly, like Mousse T's 'Horny'. Listen a little closer, however, and you'll discover that, behind all the pop gloss and meaningless lyrics (especially considering that they were written by the two blokes that make up Basement Jaxx), there's a really good party track trying to get out (and I don't mean suitable only for those end of the evening, dance to anything, alcoholically saturated stages of the party). The catchy vocal melody is carried by a groove which depends on a bit more than just a "dum-tiss" beat, and that 'attention to detail' means that various samples popping up in the environments behind provide a random element and a true sense of fun. Things like the sampled word 'romeo', sung by what sounds like some ancient jungle tribe inflicting death by Mao Mao. Or the playground "nah nah" melody in the background of 'Breakaway', Rooty's Prince-inspired electro funk second track. 'Crazy Girl' also incorporates those Kraftwerk/'Tour de France'-esque electro beats, and the wah-wah guitars – varnished, of course, with Basement Jaxx's mischievous tone and random sample choices.

The highlight of the album has got to be the Chic-sampled 'Jus 1 Kiss', whose humble filter-disco beginnings soon evolve into the funkiest of eighties disco-style grooves, carrying a hummable, twee melody, and pushed forward by a rather wayward sub-bass. The vocals are played down too – something which this album needs a bit more often. The cliche-ridden pop-friendly lyrics do begin to grate, as do Kele le Roc's et al's 'soulful' voices. The big band-type enforced jollity on 'Do Your Thing' is really quite naff. While tracks such as the crude and cack 'Get Me Off' just shouldn't be allowed.

But at the end of the day, it's just pop. And it's good.

That is an achievement in itself.