You'll Never Get To Heaven If You Stay In My Bed

Guillemots, "Who Left The Lights Off, Baby?" - For all the talk about 70s and 80s revivalism, I've actually been finding that it's the 60s enthusiasts who've been putting out the most durably enjoyable stuff from recent years. I mean, I like "Graffiti" from Maximo Park's A Certain Trigger more than anything off the Magic Numbers' debut, but compared to how much I used to like it back when I was still getting that k-classick Epworth sugar rush I'm only barely aware of its existence. By contrast, the Numbers' "Mornings Eleven" is still the same three-out-of-five it was at the beginning of the summer, but it's a three-out-of-five untainted by any forced confrontations with the law of diminishing returns.

If that's the case, then I have pretty high hopes for both this song and band. Their debut EP, I Saw Such Things In My Sleep, is four songs worth of expansive scenery-setting indie pop which sets itself far apart from many of its compatriots by actually paying off over the course of the songs, as anyone who suddenly finds themselves at the mercy of the chorus here can probably tell you. Your best frame of reference is probably the second Thrills album - not just in terms of what it sounds like (although non-fans of tweeness will probably be thankful to learn that this song is more or less devoid of Overbearingly Provincial Vocal Stylings), but in terms of the stunning improvement it was over So Much For The City, if you recall - it just leaves me scratching my head and wondering why all the rest of the stuff like this isn't doing exactly this sort of thing. (Click here to buy I Saw Such Things In My Sleep from HMV)

The New Shapes, "A Song About A Girl" - Well, the a-side to the New Shapes' debut single sure ain't much, but the b-side isn't leaving my iPod anytime soon. The points of reference are probably pretty obvious, although they probably differ depending on your location - in that split-second before my anglophile consciousness roared to the front screaming about the Undertones, this was tapping straight into the Rolling Stones section of my Corny Oldies Radio Memorybank (aside to Oldies 100.7, ONE fucking Stevie Wonder song in the rotation? And I had to go see a Spike Lee movie to hear the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" for the first time? Small wonder they bring up Three Dog Night in your obit). (Click here to buy the You've Got Me Running Around CDS from HMV)

ELSEWHERE: As if anyone ever needed ANOTHER reason to read anything ever written about ABC, here's Jess Harvell big-upping them and a bunch of other New Pop bands in a hell of a feature over at Pitchfork today. I really can't say it enough how much more I like PF when I can keep from concerning myself with their thoughts on music in progress; if the daily news, single reviews, and columns came in an injectable form, I wouldn't have a single short-sleeved shirt left.