There seems to be a current trend of bands looking to shock audiences with both their music and live performances. Very generally speaking, they create a loud, dark sound, replacing melody with a driving, hard-hitting noise.

The Moonlandingz, from Sheffield (with members of Fat White Family) are figureheads of this. Live shows are what they have become known for – during their five-date UK tour earlier this month, the front man spent most of the time in his pants, downing Buckfast, smoking indoors, with the word ‘cunt’ written across his forehead and his right arm speared through a loaf of bread. It’s an illustration of the punk spirit, I suppose. After all, you’re not allowed to smoke indoors, but they did it anyway.

Happy Meals Ltd and Shame are following suit, as two of London’s youngest, newest and most talked-about bands. The Shame front-man also takes his shirt off at every gig, before pouring lager in his underwear. Happy Meals Ltd hint at having a political side that I’m not completely sure I buy into, once causing a stir for donning a swastika on stage.

Granted, these bands are exciting and impressive, and doing some really interesting things. But I bloody love a great song – a carefully crafted melody, with lyrics that have a maturity and assuredness meaning they don’t have to shock, necessarily.

Ultimate Painting and Happyness, having both released new material in the last week or so, are two of the frontrunners for this.

Happyness, on new EP Tunnel Vision On Your Part, have produced a record of real ease and class. Daintily covering Beach Boys classic ‘Surfer Girl’, they give a nod to their West-coast influences that permeate the EP’s sound. And album highlight, ‘Friend of the Revolution’, smacks of a Teenage Fanclub in their quieter moments, crossed with the 80s at its jingly-jangly best (see Landmark by Field Mice).

The new Ultimate Painting LP, Dusk, is as good a record you’ll hear this year. True to their style, the two guitars of Cooper (formerly of Mazes) and Hoare (formerly of Veronica Falls) float through the whole album, intertwining thoughtfully, reminiscent of Veronica Falls’s more intricate guitar work. Often hard to work out who plays which part (particularly in their live set), Hoare and Cooper manage to create a delicate background sound, allowing their vocal melodies and poignant lyrics to shine through.

‘Monday Morning, Somewhere Central’, a highlight of mine from the new album, demonstrates this well, with a subtly accounted tale of missed opportunity taking centre stage over a gently shimmering and unchanging guitar line. Wistful lyrics: “Head down, you didn’t see me / That’s fine, it wasn’t meant to be,” are coated in soft harmonies that rival Lennon or McCartney’s best. Three albums in, this is a record that shows that Ultimate Painting are still at the height of their powers, leading the way alongside Happyness in well-considered songwriting.

This is never more apparent than in the two’s live shows. Hailing from Bermondsey, London, Happyness don’t belong to a particular London ‘scene’, as it were. Relying on their records to bring the crowds in, rather than schools of keen and trendy friends, they allow their songs to do all the work for them. They don’t need any gimmicks to keep the audience satisfied. They are striking in their normality, and seem exactly like the mates you always wished you’d grown up playing FIFA with.

Ultimate Painting create a more driving energy live than on the album cuts, sounding closer to television in their guitar play - they have in fact released a live LP on Third Man Records (Jack White’s label) that shows this off perfectly. When I saw them in Manchester’s Deaf Institute last weekend, Cooper asked the crowd hopefully: “Are there any good places to be heading out to later?” Before adding, honestly: “Or I guess do we attract the sort of crowd that’ll just be going home after this?” It made a nice change, having just seen The Moonlandingz’s front man plead with the audience the night before to bring some ketamine backstage after his show.

Obviously, these more raucous bands are impressive in their own right, and their efforts to shock are what make them special above and beyond their music. But Happyness and Ultimate Painting are leading the way in wonderful tunes without the gimmicks, and their new releases do not disappoint, showcasing subtle but very confident songwriting from both