happy cute sunshiney music!

yes, the album of the summer has arrived. well, it's by import-only here in the states, which can be expensive. but i was smart (and sneaky): i bought it at a normal price on amazon.co.uk, had it shipped to a very good man in england, who then sent it to me when he arrived in san francisco. how nice is that? well i'll tell you. it's very nice.

ok so what's this album i've gone through all this struggle to get into my hot little hands, that i can't download on u.s. itunes yet? why, it's the upper room's first release, other people's problems, of course!

i've had a series of demos and acoustic tracks for sometime now, so it's no surprise that i would love this album. but they pumped up the demos so they sound, well, non-demo-y, and songs that i had only heard in their stripped-down acoustic formats now appear with everything all plugged in and nicely produced and all, and it's just great.

upper room are a bunch of kids who hail from brighton in the u.k. alex miller is the songwriter and lead singer, and he's got the looks of a fresh-faced and non-suicidal ian curtis with the writing style of a more upbeat morrissey. he sings in a thick english accent, and the uniquely english lyrics match the singing style. the lyrics are rarely trite, always have an edge of cynical humor, and are verbose while maintaining the ever-important singable factor (the shins, by contrast, also write brilliant, funny, verbose lyrics, but there are so damned many words there, it's tough for the average listener to sing along).

the tunes are pure pop happiness. you can definitely hear the happiest 80s new wave influences in there that remind me of omd and their contemporaries. there's a definite 80s thing, but of course, updated, and paired with those slightly dark, quirky, paranoid-yet-hilarious lyrics.

as for the songs themselves, they flow into one another quite nicely on this disk. 'all over this town' is their single, and it leads off the album. it's got a great driving beat and is custom made for cranking on a sunny day in a convertable somewhere, speeding down the highway. 'black and white,' my favorite song from the album (it was my favorite of theirs in its acoustic version as well), is absolutely infectous, and has a great time taking its self seriously not one little bit. with lyrics like, 'pain pain pain pain pain paa-aaain,' how can it? genius. 'leave me alone' had me laughing out loud, as miller sings, 'i told you not to call me at home,' and expresses his love for a girl who is, let's face it, just a little creeped out by him.

but don't let the humor fool you. this is not novelty music. these are exceptionally well-crafted pop tunes that probably leave people like damon albarn thinking, 'ok why couldn't i write like that?' and he would be right.