Camera Obscura

The latest record from this Australian group has all the surefire elements to earn NUB endorsement: evocative cover art, equally evocative pseudo-psychedelic song titles ("Egyptian Snowflake", "Shock Of Blonde"), and overtly sexual beat poetry in the liner notes ("Over the lone ghost with secret smile atop Natalie"). Almost suprisingly, the songwriting is often scary-good. The Pajamas have a way with concise pop hooks and spot-on vocal harmonies that could almost gain them hitmaker status in the US, if they weren't so busy spiking their songs with random bursts of startling noise and trippy pastoral reveries ("young girls float on a cream canoe").

The somewhat gray, undynamic production sound employed here would handicap lesser bands, but the Green Pajamas use it to their advantage, forging a signature sound from an insistent fuzztone that permeates everything and nicely varied vocals (one lead is dusky and aspirated a la the Zombies' Colin Blunstone, the other more sweetly Beatlesque).

Gorgeous, spiraling pop songs like "The Secret Of Her Smile" (fantastic riff!) and "Queen Of Sunshine" hypnotize like the whir of mysterious machinery. With further listens, the addition of strings (synths?), keyboards, and subtle percussion to tracks like "Morning In Myra's Room" add an almost martial drama. And "Waiting For The Night To Fall" may be the closest thing to the Kinks' "Dead End Street"-style lazy grandeur yet written in the ‘90s. These guys aren't an Olivia Tremor Control, exactly, but they're getting there.

--Lane Hewitt