Discothèque Crypt / Discotheque Crypt

Well, give them this: by calling their album Discothèque Crypt, they gave you fair warning. This Minneapolis-based band apparently wishes for all the world that it was actually based in Manchester, England, circa 1983, and Revolver Modèle seem to kind of want to be dead also. And maybe French. If all of that adds up to your idea of romance, then you'll be thoroughly enchanted by lead vocalist Ehsan Alam's ooga-booga, Ian Curtis-meets-Lux Interior singing style and by the band's clangorous drone. Actually, the band's overall sound is by far its strongest asset; lead guitarist Mikal Arnold is an especially graceful and inventive player, and on several tracks — notably the wonderful (if woefully titled) "Deca-Dance," he builds beautifully on the band's foundation of filched Joy Division sounds to create something simultaneously old-school and forward-looking. At its weaker moments, however, the band seems to be stuck between a less tuneful version of the Indochine sound and a less convincing version of Joy Division's angst. To be brutally honest, what they need to do is lose Alam, whose pretentious croakings are annoying from the beginning and completely insufferable by about halfway through the album.