Lenola

Over the past three years, an American band has taken the (indie) world by storm by releasing one of those albums that is so psychedelically poppy and brilliant that it is all the rage when it comes time for the year end polls. New Jersey's Lenola is 2001's best bet so far, with Treat Me To Some Life following in the footsteps of Mercury Rev's Deserter's Songs, Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin and Grandaddy's The Sophtware Slump. Albeit, at times, Lenola come across as a more straight-ahead rock band, with their blend of dreamy, pop-induced psychedelia. Treat Me..., their forth album, is a slight departure from their earlier brand of drone-inflected dream pop that earned them many comparisons to My Bloody Valentine. Imagine the tempo of Mercury Rev's "Opus 40" or the imagination of the Flaming Lips' "The Spark That Bled" and you have this album's fourth track, "Lazy Eye." The guitars are what directs the music, bouncing around from jangle ("White Lined Knuckled Landing") to fuzzy distortion ("I Don't Mean") and Jay Laughlin's voice helps out, giving him his own brand of helium-induced vocals, which can match any one of those other three band's singers. Lenola should be the critic's darling this year. If not, then they've been robbed, big time.