Scottish rock ensemble St Deluxe deliver gloriously melodic fuzzed-out noise pop on the band's 2008 self-titled debut album. Centered on the singer/songwriter talents of guitarists Jamie Cameron and Martin Kirwan, St Deluxe also feature drummer Stuart Kidd and bassist Brian McEwan -- all the bandmembers have also performed with legendary Glasgow indie pop band the BMX Bandits. This is music for unapologetic fans of such bands as Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Teenage Fanclub, and others on labels like SST in the '80s and Creation in the '90s that produced swirling harmonies of noise, bringing to mind a perfect mix of the Velvet Underground and the Beach Boys. In that sense, St Deluxe deliver serious goods with tracks like the cinematic opening cut, Slip Away, which builds upon its Sonic Youth Dirty Boots influence with swooning guitar lines and an absolutely epic midsection, and the driving New Wave Stars, with its slabs of chugging guitar lines and surrealist Salvador Dali-meets-punk anthem imagery in a veritable shoegaze call to arms. And it's not just the uptempo rockers that stick in your ear -- the melancholy and laid-back ballad Sick Sick Sick and the equally introspective Chemical Reactions are moving stabs at adolescent love songs that make room for Big Star-inflected lyrics, Teenage Fanclub-like backing harmonies, and yet more gigantic Fender guitar heroics. But rather than just resurrecting the sounds of '90s guitar pop, St Deluxe make vibrant, viscerally engaged music delivered with a deft pop urgency, and in that sense, this is truly modern rock. ~ Matt Collar, Rovi

1		Slip Away
2		Can't Change
3		Sick Sick Sick
4		New Wave Stars
5		Chemical Reaction
6		Stupid Ideas
7		Closer to the Start
8		Crystals
9		Closer Always
10		Distant Light
11		Stop Begin

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