Force-feeding laconic New Order-style melodies and lush Human League-ish harmonies though a My Bloody Valentine scrim of noise, this Swedish three-piece has pretty much completely inverted the conceit of Psychocandy. The pop tendencies are easy to hear; they've just been wrapped up in a bit of steel wool.

Spunsugar A Hole Forever (self-released)

The distortion wash doesn't distract that much, but it does add some heft to songs that might otherwise float away. These aren't power-pop tunes. They're legit straightforward pop in chain mail.

So the question is why. For starters, the wash helps to emphasize the band's shoegaze tendencies. And, um, it sounds cool. It wouldn't work if the songs weren't so well written. Covering up dreck is necessary, but hardly fun. The songs sound effortless, even as they struggle against their bindings.

To reiterate, Psychocandy was a wall of noise that occasionally broke into a pop song. This is a set of pop songs trying to break through a (much thinner) sheet of noise. In the end, the effort is totally worth it. The struggle within the songs delivers a solid punch. Quite a bruising rush.

Jon Worley