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DEATHRAY

(Capricorn)

If Cake, the Sacramento-based outfit who graduated two Deathray members, have a liability, it's their tendency to veer from catchy quirkiness into major annoyance. That's not likely to happen -- at least not through the same process -- with Deathray, the quintet formed in 1998 by Cake alumni Greg Brown (guitar) and Victor Damiani (bass). Eschewing their former group's imaginative clutter, Brown and Damiani emerge with a more streamlined pop approach. The 13-track debut leads off with "My Lunatic Friends," tipping some kind of hat (an old-fashioned American baseball cap?) to new wave's underestimated Vapours before moving on to the kind of sophisticated, smart pop matched only by like-minded practitioners Imperial Teen and Fountains of Wayne. If the disc gets irritating, it's when keyboards and synths become cloying, an occasional nuisance (it didn't seem to hurt the Cars some 20-odd years ago) that balances the album between organic warmth and technological iciness. While retaining bits of Cake's twang ("Someone After You," "10:15"), Deathray deliver infectious modern-pop punches wrapped in a classic package.

-- Mark Woodlief