Being relatively new to Pitchfork, I was recently surprised to receive an e-mail from a reader. Not only do our readers share their opinions with us, but sometimes they don't even agree with us! As I conversed with the writer of said e-mail, he lamented the fact that his fellow high schoolers were either listening to mainstream or alternative (and isn't that redundant, anyway?), leaving him with no one to discuss his penchant for Beck, Pavement and the Sex Pistols. His comments reminded me of my own days as a youth, spouting communist slogans off of The Clash's Sandinista and consequently finding nary a kindred soul among the hordes of Michael Jackson fans that populated my suburban Pennsylvania junior high school.

But something about his comments bothered me. In the musical dark ages that were the 1980s, the "alternative" music of the Replacements, the Feelies, and Hüsker Dü was my savior. How could my young correspondent take his contemporaries to task for seeking the same salvation? But then I thought about it: sometime after the death of music's conscience, Kurt Cobain, alternative became mainstream. What made those '80s pioneers great was that they broke pop mold and created something unique. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss: nowadays, any goatee- wearing malcontent singing a pop song awash in distortion is considered alternative. The mold breakers have been transformed into the new mold.

Future Signs, the full- length debut from the British trio the Warm Jets recalls those early days of alternative. On the album, with a song cycle contemplating the future that our society speeds ever more quickly towards, the Warm Jets create an oddly catchy astro-pop sound by tossing early Cars, Ziggy Stardust- era Bowie, and the Kinks into the musical Cuisinart and pressing "puree." To spice things up, this dish is topped with a healthy sprinkling of the Pixies. Although the band tends towards lyrics consisting of well- placed buzz words and sometimes lets its love for Ric Ocasek go a bit too far, standouts like "Never Never" (which, incidentally, is reminiscent of The Jam's "News of the World") and "Utopia" rise above middling pop songs like "Maestro."

Every so often, bands turn up to remind us that pop is not necessarily synonymous with prosaic. Such was the case with the Beatles and, a generation later, with bands like Guided By Voices. With a foot firmly planted in the past, the Warm Jets have proven they've learned their lesson well on Future Signs. While lacking the sheer genius of those musical patriarchs, they have etched out a nice little pop niche for themselves.

-Neil Lieberman

"Never Never"

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