New : The Raveonettes - 'Observator'

There's enough decent music flying about out there for the discerning listener to enjoy without wasting their time listening to bands that they long ago decided weren't worth the bother. Or so I thought anyway. Having taken in The Raveonettes circa 'Pretty in Black' as the support act to The Cure a few years back I had initially written them off as soundalike Nordic hipsters singing about Route 66 and pimping low-rent garage rock off the back of the then fading garage rock boom of the early noughties. I listened to their first couple of albums again recently and remain steadfast in my belief that they're crap but the experience did prompt me to revisit all the stuff they've put out since 2007's 'Lust Lust Lust', itself a revitalised slice of nu-gaze that would pre-date the 'chick with fuzz pedals' faze that peaked a year or two later - they've dropped a couple more since then and honed their chops on each release to explore new pockets of dark, echoic rock 'n' roll. 'Observator' continues the upward trajectory and is perhaps their strongest suite yet, a nine-track all killer no filler selection of sweet bursts of reverb, blissed-out vocals and yummylicious pop hooks all the way through. The desolate yowl of opener 'Young and Cold' prompts fears that they're about to go all Johnny Cash on us but it proves to be merely a warm-up for the stylistic slalom to come as they go on to bowl strikes for the rest of the album. The chunky piano riffs on 'Observations' draw on mid-noughties BRMC, the warm indie haze of 'Curse the Night' taps into the moodier end of Madder Rose, the gorgeous indie twang of 'The Enemy' apes The Sundays at their prime and the rampant bloodrush of 'Sinking with the Sun' could slot neatly alongside anything by early 90s Yank proto-shoegazers Black Tambourine. But wait kids, there's more! Mid-paced jangler 'She owns the Streets' packs as much anthemic pop punch as Ultra Vivid Scene back in the day, the throwaway yet fiendishly addictive gimmick track 'Downtown' is basically Jane Wiedlin's 'Rush Hour' soaked in reverb,  drawn-out downer 'You hit me (I'm down)' could rival Dum Dum Girls in the kohl eyeliner and surf guitar stakes and the closing kiss-off 'Til the End' is Teenage Fan Club's 'Star Sign' channelled through twenty years of better production. This shit is so good I'm halfway convinced the band have hacked my I-Cloud, cherrypicked the best bits of my shoegaze collection and thrown them all into one big pot to brew up a record with pretty much no weak points - none of it is entirely original but they manage to touch on so many sounds that are dear to my heart that it's really quite hard not to just loop this album all bloody day. They may have started off in sucktastic territory but The Raveonettes sound like they've hit their stride and in all likelihood we'll probably be in for another stonking update from them before too long - previous effort 'Raven in the Grave' was only 18 months old by the time 'Observator' hit the shelves, suggesting that they're back in the artistic fertility period that bands typically hit at the beginning of their careers. Turns out they've grown into themselves nicely while I wasn't looking and the future looks rosy for all things Raveonettish so keep your eyes on this lot and bag 'Observator' for half an hour of instantly loveable indie rock 'n' roll and a potent string of potential dancefloor diamonds.

Check out : 'Downtown'. Not exactly rocket science but who cares when it sounds this sweet?