Rockin' Our Tunrtable: Love Psychedelico

Japan's Love Psychedelico is fronted by singer Kumi and guitarist Naoki Sato. Their latest self-titled disc is their American debut, but they already have a whole passel of albums that have sold millions overseas. We admit when we first put this one under the stylus we were expecting yet another faceless J-Pop band, but man-oh-man were we wrong.

The group sings sunny, late-'60s inspired guitar pop, and its so finely constructed that when Kumi mixes both English and japanese into her lyrics you never even notice. In fact if we didn't know the group was Japanese we'd easily mistake it for any number of excellent power-pop bands that flourish in the Midwest, hooked equally on Brian Wilson and Cheap Trick. The songs do tend to begin to sound similar after a while, however, and many of the tracks would benefit from lopping off a minute or two, but these concerns aren't really enough to mar the album's other charms and overall likability.

MP3: Love Psychedelico "Standing Bird"