Discovery of a World Inside the Moone

What's best about this album, and what makes it better than anything the Apples have yet to accomplish, is how it recalls the fact that in the '60s, pop was more desegregated than it is here in the age of narrowcasting... [Record of the Week pick]

Their playing is loaded with the confidence of established veterans.

Songwriting and production throwbacks granted, the Apples send the repackage down a new stretch of road with full-throttle performances and the soon-to-be legendary pipes of singer Robert Schneider.

Once in a while, a record will come out that's simply perfect... their finest record to date - pure, gleeful pop virtuosity.

Though the shadows of Wilson and Lennon/McCartney loom large over this latest psyche-pop platter, the Apples tap into a tradition of classic pop songwriting rather than merely plagiarising their ancestors.

For, as derivative and daft as The Apples are, it's impossible, like a scowling adolescent laughing at the antics of his irritating kid brother, to hate them.

If The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone fails to find the Apples branching into James Brown territory, it's still the band's most diverse outing, and debatably their finest. Wisely jettisoning the noodly experiments that made Her Wallpaper Reverie seem much longer than it actually was, the Apples turn their focus squarely back on the catchy song, with a more pronounced feel for instrumental variety.

At once infectious and challenging, complex and direct, The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone represents the new standard for those seeking to carry the torch lit by the Beatles and Beach Boys.