The Big Pink: Future This

Label: 4AD

Album number two for British duo the Big Pink is a big-synths-and-hooks affair, the kind of thing that M83 fans need to wrap their ears around immediately. While upbeat tunes with cloud-scraping melodies, like "Hit the Ground (Superman)," first single "Stay Gold" and the buzzing, nervy "1313," are the Big Pink's stock in trade, it's slower numbers like "The Palace" that prove to be the most emotionally affecting on Future This: Singer Robertson Furze (who used to play guitar for Alec Empire, if you can imagine!) tucks his vocal lines in and around a steadily rising beat as partner Milo Cordell edges the melody upward gradually. The title track also tamps down the energy that characterizes most of the record, with Furze tossing out a string of lines ("love runs faster than time") that will stick in the minds and iPods of the international indie community.