t’s a familiar story: A couple of young kids (brothers Tom, 17 and Alex, 19) start a band. They name themselves after a Doors album. I imagine that they are praying to not be compared to other bands made up of boys in their tender years. Silverchair? Hanson? Bright Eyes? Much more mature than the kiddy bop of Hanson, less fatalistic than Bright Eyes, and far less prone to theatrics than Sliverchair, these “kids” defy the odds and create one of the best rock albums to come from over the pond since Oasis dropped What’s the Story Morning Glory? and before Blur started to sound like American indie rock.


The sound on this album is unapologetically Brit-Pop. It harkens back to the glory days of said genre, when rock albums popped with big, grand melodies and kids pogoed along in their best trainers. Heck, the CD insert even features a photo collage of the boys’ studio, filled with posters. Suede, Super Furry Animals, Pulp, Six By Seven, Silver Sun, and St. Etienne. No big surprise then, that the music sounds like the perfect concoction of all those bands. The White brothers wear their influences proudly on sleeves. The guitars on steroids of Six By Seven, the breezy pop of St Etienne, the crooning melodies of Suede. It's all here and creates a delicious mix.


The energy is infectious from the start. Pounding percussion and warm, wooly guitars crash the opening gates as singer, Alex White pulls the reins, starts singing with vocoder effects and pulls the instruments into a gentle background cascade. The song works itself up into anthemic bursts and ends abruptly. Keyboards and hip shaking rhythm follow on “Empty At The End”, complete with sing-along chorus, “All I know is/ No one is my friend”. More anthems, more sing-along, more fist-in-the-air action song after song. “There’s A Silence” could have been a lost Cheap Trick number, with its glam-stomp guitar line and insanely catchy shouted chorus.


Electric Soft Parade pull out their trump at the midway point and slap their epic out on the table. Nine minutes of woozy melodies, tempo changes and sweet harmonies. “’Cause when I needed someone to talk to/ You were the only one around” sings Tom White over tastefully jangly guitars. And just as all every power pop geek is about to go week in the knees, everything downshifts and gets echoey. In comes the organ and shoegazer guitar. Downshift again, in comes the piano and backwards cymbals. They start to plunge into Grandaddy territory here, but not quite as precious sounding as the boys from Modesto. This is where the chorus comes in again, only this time, it sounds far off. Like hearing a radio playing in another room. Fade out to far off music. A pretty damn good side one closer.


Side two wastes no time getting back into the traditional guitar jangle with “Sleep Again” and then rocking the fuzz on “Sleep Alone”. The album actually gets a bit repetitive at this point, as Tom White’s songwriting formula starts to become obvious: understated verses followed by the money shot, a shouting, melodic chorus. Sure, it’s effective, but just like any other catchy pop band, like the Apples in Stereo or Papas Fritas, it can wear a bit thin in spots. The formula seems to work best when it’s coupled with surprises, ala the tempo changes in “Silent To The Dark”. They get close to repeating that deft juxtaposition of pop song and atmospheric on “Biting The Souls Of My Feet”, which climbs into a noisy wall of guitar at the end. Closer, “Red Balloon For Me” also pulls out of the formula by using a plodding beat and overlapped vocals that play on different melodies.


It’s a bit refreshing to hear something so mature and sure of itself. Electric Soft Parade doesn’t try and be revolutionary because it’s not what they’re good at. They’re just two boys in a band. Boys will be boys.