YOU DON'T have to apologise for liking Stornoway – but many music critics do. "I Don't Normally Do This Sort Of Thing ..." they write about the posh Oxford folk band. First may come the stunning observation that "Stornoway aren't a rock'n'roll band", followed by "yes, the music is twee" and then, begrudgingly, "but they are quite good", writes BRIAN BOYD

Music journalists (bless ’em) do seem to be rather hung-up on the socio-economic provenance of those they write about. Working class is cool; middle class isn’t. Throw them a “council estate poet laureate” (they love a bit of rough) and they’re ecstatic; give them a Coldplay or a Keane and they sneer – not just at the music but at the people behind it.

Occasionally one slips through the net: The Strokes (with their battered leather jackets and bespoke Noo Yawk indie cool) received plaudits aplenty – despite the fact they were, in the main, products of an expensive school system.

Some of the “better cover my rock’n’roll ass” comments that have been made about Stornoway are risible. First problem is they’re more influenced by Steeleye Span than they are by The Velvet Underground or the New York Dolls. Second, they’re all a bit too academic, well-mannered and white – one of Stornoway has a Master’s in Russian literature, another is doing a PhD in ornithology. Their whey-faced, uninteresting Tim Henman-style features won’t look good on the covers of music magazines, and they make Cliff Richard look like a Satan-worshipping Scandinavian death-metal band singer. They even make Mumford And Sons look like Pantera.

Which other band do you know prefers a banjo to a Rickenbacker, uses the kazoo (in a non-ironic way) and buys old crockery from Age Concern shops to use as percussion. Visually, it's not 4AD territory – Stornoway take their visuals from out-of-print maritime flora and fauna books. All very Wicker Man.

But who are they signed to? You guessed it – 4AD, the esteemed home of Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil over the years.

Stornoway's first release was a tribute to the joys of rolling down a hill in a transparent plastic orb ( Zorbing) – "Conkers shining on the ground, the air is cooler, and I feel like I just started uni", run the lyrics.

Stornoway look set to become the Blur to Mumford and Sons’ Oasis in the current musical climate. In case you hadn’t noticed, the big spend these days is on “Nu-Folk/Indie Folk” – or whatever it’s called this week. From Mumford to Laura Marling to Noah and the Whale, the A&R departments are all scouting the community arts centre these days looking for pleasant white acoustic music that will get that vital daytime radio play. It’s official: fretting about your carbon footprint in a vegan cafe is the new doing lines of cocaine in CBGBs.

"I am a seabird/You are the Arctic Ocean/I know your seasons and your sanctuaries" sing Stornoway on The Cold Harbour Road.It's all very Glastonbury Green Fields – and that's the beauty of it. Listen to their wonderful Fuel Upand you can practically see them in Aran jumpers with their fingers in their ears as they harmonise. No surprise that most of these songs were written during protracted bird watches.

Five will get you 10 that Stornoway will be on this year’s Mercury Music Prize shortlist. And they’ll be there not just as representatives of the Nu-Folk genre but because they’re brilliant songwriters who have shrugged their shoulders at the cliche-ridden and hideously derivative rock music scene (and really the time has come for a seal cull of skinny-jeaned, floppy fringed Camden indie bands) and just done their own “Hello birds, Hello clouds” thing.

No, Stornoway aren’t rock’n’roll. But in their own honest, talented and very skilful way, they are the real essence of rock’n’roll.

• Stornoway's debut, Beachcomber's Windowsill,is out this week. They'll be playing at this year's Electric Picnic. Listen Now: www.myspace.com/stornoway