Almost all of the music I get these days comes via download. I'm in favor of this development. More people can hear your music at a much lower cost. Win-win. But I also like getting those envelopes with the weird paper and customs notice. Hey! Foreign mail!

Drive In Music Club Drive In Music Club (self-released)

I don't often get Irish music. Or, to be specific, music from Irish bands. I have to put it that way, because Drive In Music Club sounds a lot more like late 70s R&B than anything us Yanks think of as Irish.

For starters, there aren't any reels. Rather, there is a relatively underproduced pile of slinky grooves that remind me a lot of Prince's first couple of albums. The grooves are loose and easy, and the vocals are lush and inviting. Nothing complicated, which is one of the great joys of this album.

Another winner is the rhythm section, which runs screaming from those tight 60s jams and lets out its belt a couple of notches. DIMC is funky and louche. The songs are extensions of whatever groove is established. Perhaps not as free-form as Marvin Gaye, but definitely more toward that ideal.

Put this comfy couch in the middle of your living room and watch people settle in. Slap on a smile and tell your friends they're listening to Irish music. Then let the magic take over.

Jon Worley