Wow and Flutter

Sometimes originality is overrated in rock & roll. There are plenty of bands who have labored hard to reshape the formal conventions of the medium and accomplished little more than giving their audience a headache and forcing a few bloggers to make sense of their experiments. On the other hand, there's a band like the Telepathic Butterflies, who have clearly embraced a sound and style that's been knocking around for a few decades but create something tuneful and satisfying from these traditional building blocks each time out. Wow & Flutter!, the group's fourth album, is another exercise in fresh and enthusiastic pop in the manner of the Beatles and the Hollies (with a bit of the Raspberries thrown in for good measure), which is to say it doesn't stray far from the Butterflies' previous work or the influences they've drawn on in the past. But boy, Réjean Ricard sure knows how to write a great pop tune; these ten songs are built around melt-in-your-mouth melodies and near-perfect hooks, and anyone who has a taste for vintage pop sounds should all but swoon over this material, which is clever without sounding stuffy and superbly crafted without showing off. And the band is a superb vehicle for Ricard's ideas, with the bright, chiming guitars, tight harmonies, and solid rhythms making this music sound as joyous and enthusiastic as it deserves. And the crisp, sympathetic production is all the more remarkable when you consider the band cut this in Ricard's home studio using semi-pro gear — plenty of bands have gone to far greater lengths to make records that don't sound half this good. On Wow & Flutter! the Telepathic Butterflies aren't doing much you haven't heard before, but chances are it's been a long time since you've heard it done this well (unless, of course, you picked up their 2008 album Breakfast in Suburbia), and they're good enough to make old ideas sound as thoroughly enjoyable as when they were brand-new.