Whereas Sweden seems to have become a hotbed for classic-punk revivals, Norway appears to have gone more in the direction of ’60s soft pop, first with the Simon and Garfunkel–esque musings of Kings of Convenience and now with the very Kinksy Sondre Lerche. The 19-year-old Oslo-based singer-songwriter has the Velveteen-voiced affect of mid-period Ray Davies down cold, and there’s a touch of Zombies frontman Colin Blunstone’s breathy delivery in his voice as well. Not bad influences, but Lerche is a canny tunesmith on his own terms, and his songs are smartly rendered in quirky yet sympathetic settings that feature everything from Casio keyboards to peculiar percussion to just-shy-of-Baroque string arrangements courtesy of High Llamas studio whiz Sean O’Hagan.

Yet beneath the breezy sound of Faces Down lies a young melancholic soul who on "Dead Passengers" camouflages a tale of the Grim Reaper come to call with droll lyrics and a lilting samba beat. "You Know So Well" is so sweetly rendered and whimsical, it’s hard to believe the song is really about insomnia and heartbreak. The goofily nostalgic "Modern Nature" is Lerche’s take on the English music-hall tradition; "Virtue and Wine" finds him tossing off sardonic lines like "It’s morning when she gets up/She puts on Lionel Richie/I’ve already had enough." Arch? Yes. But also mature and heartfelt.