KEY POINTS:
Herald rating: * * * *
Label: Sony Bmg
Verdict: Impressive and colourful first outing by young North Shore quartet
The theory goes that there is something in the water at Takapuna Grammar which turns its young music talent into rockquest-conquering bands with 60s fixations. We've already had the Checks. If their blues bent suggested them as the sorta-Stones of their neighbourhood, then the younger, sweeter, craftier and more technicolour Electric Confectionaires are the sorta-Beatles.
Well, there's a heavy debt (ho ho) to Taxman on the title track, and as he sings the airy tunes at the start of the Norwegian Wood-grained Silver Silver Moon or Lady Mariane, frontman Jaisi Sheehan can sound positively McCartneyesque.
And there's a similar wide-eyed sense of pop glee - matched to Beach Boys-quality harmonies and elegant arrangements and amusingly scatterbrained lyrics - that makes this 11-song set positively infectious.
True the energy levels do slide after the upbeat early offerings like the Supergrass-meets-Santana opener of Late Night Shopping Spree and the guilelessly groovy All My Love.
Their sheer enthusiasm doesn't always trump this falling into pastiche, as can be heard on a couple of weaker tracks, Piece of My Heart and Mind Full of Method.
Otherwise, the ECs prove they're a band where youthful exuberance is equalled by pop smarts and imagination.
