Our Little Hymnal

Everything about the debut album from this New Jersey-based sextet — the band name, the cover design, song titles like "Poor in Spirit" and "Third Selah" — seems designed to make you expect country-gospel. What you get instead is something that sounds like Bono singing lead vocals for a band consisting of members of both Echo & the Bunnymen and Cocteau Twins. The group's primary sonic element is guitars, and lots of them: big, dense, glittery, multi-layered guitars, most of which sound like guitars but some of which sound like other things (flutes, for example, on the lovely "Marylawn Hair"). Lyrics are a bit hard to tease out from the shimmering murk, but based on punning song titles like "Mercy Beat" (which manages to refer to both classic pop and old-time religion), they probably aren't as self-important as singer John Mosloskie's U2-ish delivery might lead you to expect. And there really is a lot of subtly cool stuff going on at a purely musical level: notice the whimsical choral vocals and handclaps on "Captive Train," for example. But there are also a few pretentious low points, the worst of them being the arch and halting "Poor in Spirit." Recommended overall.