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Source: BBC Manchester Entertainment

Three years on, the wilderness has finally given them up and, with a little help from renowned producer John Leckie, they have defied the odds and come back with an album that makes Vulnerabilia look like a straight-forward and almost mundane collection.

No CV (an allusion to the complete lack of finances accrued by the pair) is everything any fan of that debut could have hoped for. It is, in equal parts, manic, maudlin, marauding, magnificent and downright mad. Where an album usually flows, No CV is an alleyway mugging, a walk through a meadow, a bar-room catfight, a dash through suburbia and a night of love action, all juxtaposed to make an unnervingly intoxicating experience.

Leckie moved up north for the duration of production, an experience he probably won’t forget, but when you hear The Boy I Used To Be’s bolero beauty, the trip-hop aspirations of Don’t Go Where I’ve Been, Life’s twisted acoustica, the tiny torch song Heart, or the truly epic Pulling Myself Together, which weighs in with nine minutes of meandering gorgeousness that pitches from orchestral wonders to tight drum and bass, and you’ll realise why he felt so compelled to spend three months holed up in an Urmston B&B.

As with Vulnerabilia, it is Andrew Chester’s lyrics that really grab the attention. Starkly honest and brutally expressive, Chester deals with issues of rape in Life, the frailty of masculinity in Over You and the power of addiction in Some Chemicals. They may be often uncomfortable, but they are also the thing that sets My Computer apart from their contemporaries.

No CV is a triumph and it’s a credit to the talents and strength of Chester and David Luke that they’ve created it. Financially, they may have little to put on their résumés, but in music terms, it’s definitely a case of Yes CV!

No CV Original Artwork by Kate Gibb
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