Jim Noir: Jim Noir (My Dad)

Some six months ago the English magazine Q hailed this quirky, poppy and delightfully cheerful album as "the surprise soundtrack of summer 2008" -- which means that for us in the other hemisphere it is now we should be tuning in.

Jim Noir (known to his family as Alan Roberts) from near Manchester is far from noir and in fact there is a Beach Boys breeziness at work here, married with some of Paul McCartney's most unself-conscious pop from his early days around the fruitful Ram period.

Noir plays all the instruments himself so relies more on electronics than the aforementioned, but he brings a warm post-psychedelic and quasi-folk trip-hop quality which recalls the Beta Band (see The Aliens). With shelf-shifting basslines in places this is well grounded so his flights of whimsy don't take off too far.

Given the success of Mika, MGMT and now Of Montreal in the field of unabashed fun with pop hooks and choruses, Jim Noir might just be on to something. And we have to ask ourselves, is some of this the result of the resurrection of Brian Wilson's classic work in this past decade?

Jim Noir seems to have a recipe for an endless summer.