Fun british indie-pop/synth-pop that steals from everyone. It's not bad though. The Capes are one of those third-wave revival bands that decided to take their favorite elements of every other band but have fun while doing it. The Capes' best asset is their ability to mix keyboards with a more standard two-guitar-a-bass-and-drums setup.

Their press sheets are a laundry list of namechecking other recent British bands and old brit-pop/psychadelic/indie/lo-fi. But they pull it off and their particular mix of styles is almost unique. This album is all over the place, with each track citing a different 12-month era of indie music. There's a lot of promise in this record, even if they're not confident enough to take advantage of it yet. Primary cousins: Bloc Party, Blur, Futureheads, Beach Boys. Recent American cousin: the Spinto Band.

Picks: 1, 3, 5, 12. FCC Clean.

***1) Starts with casio riff then drums, vocals. Guitar assault during choruses. La-la-la's. Sunny garage-rock, weezer-y. (2:55)
2) Straight into standard guitars. Strokes-y at first, can't help but get sunny in the 2nd half. Fun woo-woo sirens. Annoying ending vocals. (3:22)
***3) Gang-of-four guitars, starts with sleazy vocals, ends with repeated brit-pop chorus. (3:01)
4) Could be mistaken for a Maximo Park track -- punchy cockney vocals. Apparently about a model who used to hang out with Andy Warhol. (2:46)
**5) Nintendo synth + guitars & drum, different vocal style -- singer sounds a lot more confident. (3:15)
6) Sci-fi blips open, Franz Ferdinand-y guitars. Fast & hard. (2:12)
7) Silly japanese + synths intro, middle is pretty standard, 1min instrumental fade-out, starts getting quiet with 25s left. (3:55)
*8) 6s silence at start, dreamy aah-aahs, backing subdued garage rock. Retro, post-Beatles, feel. ~6s of near silence at end.(5:06)
9) Crunchy guitars, lo-fi vocals, falsetto backing, weezer-y, shouted/phoned-in vocals near end, 40s slow-dance instrumental breakdown. (3:40)
10) Cockney vocals, great fuzz guitar prominent in intro, quiet & pushing throughout. Another Maximo Park cousin. (2:39)
11) Sweet melodic beach-boys vocals and jangly guitar, chorus is an electric guitar feel-good expansive bit. (3:35)
***12) Mostly instrumental, beach-boys style "aaahs," totally out of character, surprisingly good. If the guitars were less crunchy, this could be post-rock. (2:52)