Very seldom does a record come along which floors me. This did. The album contains no less than 30 tracks lasting a total of 72 minutes, gently cavorts through several musical genres, possesses some of the most delicate electronic sounds, and is so strong on melody it hurts. In short, it’s wonderful.

Imagine a mix of pop magicians Ooberman (remember them?), with a touch of Stereolab, and snippets of Belle & Sebastian at their very best and most innocent. Sounds crazy eh? But it works beautifully and provides this Hull based band with a truly distinctive and original identity. Like A Welcome From A Friendly Cassette opens with a host of gentle electronic sounds with a keyboard drone in the background. A fragile male vocal accompanied by a distant and subtle Hammond then enters at something less than glacial pace. Electronic ticks then return with a rockier guitar rhythm and the pace changes to something more urgent. I looked at the CD player counter and its showing track three, Un Elephant. You then learn to ignore the numbers and just sit back and listen to 72 minutes of the most enchanting pop. Aah, it’s song 4 (and I’m sort of back on track…), Robotic Samba Program, with a leisurely Latin beat that suddenly takes on a more rampart pop/rock pace. Great. Electronic Bee is dominated by instrumental sounds with an ocean deep drum rhythm overlaid with spacey electronics. Amazing.

A few tracks on and the surprises keep coming including the inclusion of childlike spoken narrative. To try and describe this record is like walking through the eye of a needle, but its overall effect is create the warmest feeling and to want to play it all day. I bemoaned the disappearance of Ooberman following some of the most moving pop releases in many years. Fonda 500 have taken the genre a few steps further and deserve the highest recognition for a record that is bewilderingly brilliant, entertaining and original. 2004 started out as a very strong release year. It’s just got even better. My message to you is while you may not hear this played on the radio, go out and buy it anyway because Fonda 500 have redefined pop music in the most beautiful and beguiling way.

5/5