Jim Noir

I recently wrote about how I usually expect music to be somewhat forward thinking and/or innovative or at least not a rehash of things done to death already, unless it sounds like 60's pop music. Well, here's my chance to put my money where my mouth is.

Jim Noir is a pop traditionalist, plain and simple. Don't be fooled by the synths and occasional programmed drums. The guy is stuck in 1966. Even the production and mixing of his debut record, Tower of Love, is in throwback mode. Drums in the left channel and vocals in the right? Has anybody done that on a record since the Beatles broke up? How about the "percussive" organ playing? That's a trick straight out of Brian Wilson's playbook (think "Good Vibrations"). "I Me You I'm Your" could fit right in on any Zombies record, and it's not hard to imagine "How to Be So Real" coming from somebody like Love.

Really, almost half the songs on Tower of Love could easily have been written by the Beatles. This is partly because they're so similar in harmonic structure and atmosphere, but also because they're just that good. I could spend all day saying which songs sound like which artists, but in the end, they're all keepers, and all brilliantly infectious. This is the best pure pop record I've heard in quite a long time. It's the record that Belle and Sebastian wish they could make. It's the feel-good sound of the summer.

And it's not even out in the United States yet! You all better be rushing to your closest record store on August 8.