Showbug

Rarely has anyone taken pop so seriously as Sean O'Hagan. Like a rocket scientist who hasn't left the lab in 20 years, O'Hagan has spent a beach's worth of hourglasses in recording studios trying to find the formula that will lead him to make the Pet Sounds of today. Snowbug is probably the closest he's come yet.

'Triads' sounds like what would have happened had Burt Bacharach joined The Carpenters, its pristine flugelhorns and trumpets an echo of more innocent times. 'Cookie Bay' and 'Cotton To The Bell' sound like prime Stereolab and with good reason - they feature the 'Lab's Mary Hansen and Laetitia Sadier on alternate harmonies as well as their trademark Farfisa flourish.

Chicago boffs John McEntire and Jim O'Rourke helped record the album and even Steve Albini gets a credit for loaning instruments, leaving you in no doubt as to the respect in which O'Hagan and his merry men are held among his peers.

So this is cerebral pop in which every instrument has its place and does its job very well, but sometimes you wish O'Hagan would put in a little more blood in the music; concentrate less on the feel of the record and more on actual feelings.

Also, at an hour's running time, it's hard to see this being listened to in one sitting. Still, the High Llamas's world is one they have created by and for themselves and it's always worth looking in on it every now and then.