Blast! When the core of the Marine Research was known as Heavenly, it was so much easier for us music journalists to find cherubic vocabulary and afterlife analogies for praise. Y'know, it was easy to spit quotes like, "Heavenly's ethereal girl harmonies whisk you to St. Peter," or "the guitars chime and jangle like harps before punching and piercing like cupid's points." But what can a writer do with "Marine Research?" Oceanography doesn't make for outstanding rock metaphor.

So, um... "the opening keyboard chimes lure you into the "rocks" like an errant foghorn?" Man, that's horrible. It does no justice. [Amelia's deceivingly sunny vocals build into solid guitar layers with Lush- like harmonies. –Ed.] Hmm... "You and a Girl" is a sea shanty lullaby that laps against the gentle shore of cellos with bubbling bass and surf guitar." Okay, this just isn't working. [It actually sounds more like a dreamy, funkified "My Favorite Things." -Ed.] "Hopefulness to Hopelessness" fuses Belle and Sebastian and the Go-Go's like a seahorse crosses... um... a horse and a... uh, sea... fish. The juxtaposition of achingly caustic guitar and divine vocals makes a perfect soundtrack for tragically sinking to death in an imploding deep- sea vessel.

Marine Research's secret weapon, much like a nuclear submarine, is the veteran guitar work that references pop's six- string, 40- year history, in a similar way that Jacques Cousteau's seminal book "Le Underaqua Monde de le Fantasie y Spectacle" built upon earlier oceanographic tomes with humble respect. [We are not certain of this book's existence -Ed.] Punk rock, doo-wop, Brit-pop, shoegazer and wah-wah blend into an effortless meringue, like the froth of breaks and crests. Keyboards and strings are squeezed in with purpose and subtlety. Delicious melodies and expert pop craft create a vibrant ecology, like a lovely coral reef. If the Highland chorus of "Venn Diagram" fails to lift your spirit, why then you should be swallowed by a large whale, or perhaps a giant squid.

Sounds From the Gulf Stream causes even the greatest of music scribes to fall into helpless descriptive blabber. This is pop perfection, transcending supposedly dead genres with sheer bliss. How can angelic sounds be rightfully captured in text? It's quite... well, heavenly (in an underwater way!). Like Neptune maybe! He was the Greek god of the ocean...

-Brent DiCrescenzo