**1/2 Mexico 70

IMPERIAL COMET HOUR

(Big Pop)

The unusual band name, the grand label name, and the intriguing cover photo of an abandoned factory are all at odds with the utterly conventional British jangle pop laid down by this earnest foursome. For starters, a more honest moniker would be England '83. With their ringing open-chord rockers, jazzy acoustic guitar reveries, and ghost-of-Paul-Weller vocals, they recall the Jam's "Bitterest Pill," Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' Rattlesnake, the first couple of Aztec Camera albums.

Yet when they're on, the new boys justify the hip flair of their name and packaging by revitalizing the romance in their outdated sound: the propulsive rhythm and criss-crossing vocal lines on "I Want You" shoot off like fireworks, the minor-chord melancholia of "Hate for You" shimmers like moonlight on water. Their music may still be as cliché'd as those metaphors, but that's part of the charm. If these youngsters won't inspire you to tie a black bandanna around your neck the way Weller and company once did, at least you'll remember how daring and sexy it felt.

-- Franklin Soults