Swedish indie poppers This Year's Model may take their name from the classic Elvis Costello album, but in fact their true musical forefathers are a certain breed of post-Costello bands from the '80s: these 15 songs feature lashings of the Go-Betweens, the Wedding Present, the Monochrome Set (whose semi-retired lead singer Bid pops up here to add vocals to "O, Heaven Help My Foolish Heart," which among other things points up just how much This Year's Model singer Niklas Gustafsson sounds like him), and Prefab Sprout, among others. In other words, this is elegant, musically sophisticated indie pop that's deeply melodic without being instantly hummable. Lyrically, The Clock Strikes Ten flirts with being a concept album; the elaborate packaging includes three brief, noirish short stories by Vic Godard of the Subway Sect, Jessica Griffin of the Would-Be-Goods, and Dickon Edwards of Fosca, each a mysterious vignette featuring the album title. The songs themselves continue the theme of crime and mystery without trying too obviously to create anything approaching a storyline. Highlights include the Scott Walker-ish dark-hued piano ballad "I Am My Best Friend's Acquaintance," the quirky, reverb-heavy waltz "I Think the Snow Saved Me," and the album's most immediate track, a jangly guitar pop tune with novelistic detail in the lyrics called "Ten O'Clock Murder," which sounds rather like Lloyd Cole and the Commotions had Cole preferred Raymond Chandler to Joan Didion. Anglophile indie rock fans of a certain age are going to be all over The Clock Strikes Ten, one of the most satisfying releases in this general style in years.
© Stewart Mason /TiVo