Cults

CultsColumbia ***

Brooklyn film students Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion don't appear, on the surface at least, to have the kind of pop history smarts that would lend their debut album much weight. But when you hear influences ranging from Phil Spector and Lesley Gore to My Bloody Valentine and Jay Z, you get a sense of Cults' breadth of knowledge. The album doesn't sound like the work of arty dilettantes, but of people who love their reference points so much they just wanna put their hands in the air like they just don't care. The downside, of course, is the obviousness of the exercise. Still, take delight in the fact that if one giddy reminder of pop's great past doesn't get you in one song, then you know it surely will in the next. See cultscultscults.com

Download tracks: Abducted, Most Wanted, Never Saw the Point