Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid

Elefant frontman Diego Garcia must have memorized nearly every song by The Cure while he was growing up because his band's debut album, "Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid," is a shameless, abstract pop mix, a solid indie-pop record heavy in new-wave aesthetic. Tripping two-tone percussion swirls around glossy synth beats and Garcia's Morrissey-like dark vocal softness fits his passionate, undying lyrical wishes for that perfect love. Elefant have carefully crafted an album that's not derivative of their garage-rock counterparts. Such a task is a difficult one, but "Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid" brilliantly pulls it off without being overly stylish.