Neverever / Angelic Swells

Slumberland

Jihae and Wallace Meek, a couple with a keen ear for pop, have travelled the world together in search of the perfect tune. Having met in Glasgow while Ms. Meek was the singer for The Royal We and Mr. Meek helmed the excellent Bricolage, they eventually relocated to Los Angeles to soak in the sunny vibes and pop history. Surrounded by stacks of dusty 45s, crack musicians and dinette counters lined with hopefuls and has-beens, Neverever is their new band, a tough group with a flair for echoey three-minute symphonies, marrying classic pop melodies with punk-informed crunch and glam-infused '70s stomp. Angelic Swells, the group's debut album, is a remarkable effort that takes in '50s rock 'n' roll, '60s girl-group sounds, the '70s glam heyday of Slade and Suzi Quatro and '80s power-pop on its way to creating a bang-up-to-date idea of what pop should sound like in 2010. It's a timeless sound: fuzzy riffs, pounding rhythms and tales of teenage love and lust. From the epic, widescreen opener "Here Is Always Somewhere Else" to the breathless tale of adolescent sexual awkwardness that is "Coconut Shampoo" to the slow-dance swoon of "16th Wonder," every tune could be a lost hit crackling from an AM radio. Not that there's anything lo-fi happening here; the band worked hard with Jeff Ehrenberg at famed Los Angeles studio Infrasonic (No Age, Beck, Peter Case) to give Angelic Swells that warm, technicolor sound that marks so many great records. First single (under the name The Champagne Socialists) "Blue Genes" is here in freshly recorded form--its catchy guitar riff and rama-lama drums jump from the speakers and head straight for your feet, sure to pack the dancefloor and get you hand-clapping along with the chorus. "Young Runways" and "Teardrop Tattoo" go for a Shadow Morton vibe--updated slices of girl-group goodness that re-imagine the Shangri-Las as they might have sounded playing at CBGB in 1976: brilliant power-pop for the new millennium with nods to Blondie and Shop Assistants along the way. The connection is made explicit by Neverever's cover of The Plimsouls' "Now," which fits in so well with the rest of the songs that you'd think it was an original.  Neverever knows their pop history and how to write great songs. Angelic Swells is a an ambitious, iconoclastic record packed with rambunctious riffs, rumbling drums, ear-nagging melodies and, most of all, timeless tunes.

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