Spirits — Spirits

By all accounts, Spirits should be a guilty pleasure album, but before long, so many of your friends will be listening to it that you won't feel bad about dancing like a sissy to "When The Sun Gets In My Eyes."

Lyrically, this album is mostly mushy, sentimental crap, but you'll find you don't care. On a few tracks, this southern Ontario threesome come across as a Final Straw era Snow Patrol. On others, they're sonically comparable to MGMT. Mid-album power pop gem "Forbidden Flame" could be on any U2 album. Spirits have said they tried to pay homage to New Order, Duran Duran and The Human League with this disc, and they're definitely not far off the mark.

As a band, Spirits are still in their infancy — they formed when Ian Smith (The Miniatures) and Brad Germain (The Marble Index) got together to make something "for shits and giggles." They may not be past the opener stage yet, but their music is definitely stadium-ready. This debut is over pretty quickly, but it's a fun ride while it lasts.

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