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Ok, so first off I must iterate the fact that this particular run down is in no particular order, nor is it a definitive list of the best British record labels of all time (as if such a breakdown could ever be truly quantified). It is simply a list of some personal favourites within the British...MORE>>

Graduating with honours from the same synth-steeped pop school as Metro Station, The Killers and Hellogoodbye, please put your hands together for The Mission District.

These young gentlemen are a fresh-faced sextet from Canada, a country that moonlights as a hothouse for musicians (Final Fantasy, Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene et al). Formed in 2004, they released their debut album Youth Games last year. Ubiquitous celeb blogger Perez Hilton is a fan, describing them thus: “Not only are they cute, but they make great music and have got lots of gumption.”

Their trade is in expertly crafted pop songs with a tinge of emo, and the stuff that’s up on their MySpace page makes pleasant listening.  But the sentiments expressed in the songs are not particularly original, and horror of horrors, they sound like a lot of other bands doing the rounds at the moment. If you are part of a genre, you need to try consciously to sound better than your rivals. These guys don’t, which is probably why tracks like So Over You will fade to insignificance in your memory.

So Over You has catchy chorus, complete with earnest ‘oh oh’ backing vox. It’s the kind of thing you can imagine kids chanting in the playground; or drunkards yowling in the bar – it appeals to the masses. The lyrics are simple, addressing the core dilemma of the song, which concerns somebody still being in love with you even though you don’t love them.

A stirring synth-organ riff and drumbeat carry a sense of urgency throughout, and this suits the melodramatic tenor of the track. Perhaps it’s my piss-taking English sense of humour, but I sincerely hope that it is all a little tongue-in-cheek: ‘Darling, don’t get so worked up / And everything will be just fine / Darling don’t get so hung up / You know you’ll never change my mind.’

Dream pop – that’s one phrase that has been used to describe the band’s sound, and with Evan Clarke providing shimmery synth swirls on keyboard, Mike Hand’s energetic drums and chirpy guitars from Travis Barefoot and Rob Rousseau, The Mission District are uniformly upbeat. On Cloud 9, even. But listen to the lyrics of So Over You. They’re pretty cruel. Sarcastic, even. Why didn’t they try and convey some of that in the music?

Lead singer and mastermind of the whole outfit David Rancourt has a pleasant enough voice, and if you listen closely you can hear that it is spiced up with synthesised harmonies in places. This effect erases some of the human rawness of the performance, but it fits in with their glossy, well-produced sound.

The Mission District are harmless fun, and So Over You is a perfectly respectable song to dance to on a night out. Expect no more, and no less.