"I'm not a star, I'm the whole solar system," professes the Januaries' Debbie Diamond on "All Systems a GoGo." The group pulls off a difficult feat: they build songs based on a '60s pop foundation that are at once delightfully kitschy and substantially meaty. A majority of the credit goes to Diamond herself. Her singing style lives up to her Bond-girl image; she's breathy, kittenish, and sexy as hell, yet blink once and she whips into tough-as-nails indie-rock mode. With a penchant for fanciful character changes, Diamond is a pastel, angel-food alter ego of Garbage's Shirley Manson, but better still, she displays a remarkable range of vocal subtleties that can only be detected through multiple listenings. The band's musical approach is plush and soft-focused yet firmly packed; it's like being hit with an enormous, velvet-covered beanbag. Their trumpet-accented, sometimes psychedelic tracks take the best from the airy musing of Saint Etienne, charge them with the fiery sex appeal of Curve's Toni Halliday, and then mold the combination into a Burt Bacharachian framework that's nothing less than utterly addictive (this music would set Austin Powers' mojo into overdrive). It's true: the Januaries are not stars waiting to be born, but a glittering galaxy waiting to explode. --Beth Massa
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