If the world needed the missing link between Wayne Coyne, Brian Wilson and Thom Yorke (and I firmly believe it does) then we have it now, in Voom’s cracked-of-vox and sincere-ofheart frontman Buzz Moller.

Since 1998, when Voom released their bNet favourite debut Now I Am Me, the band have been laying low, adding and subtracting members, messing around in basements, and generally taking their time building up a beautiful and whimsical slice of kiwiana indie-pop sincerity. There’s enough sonic and lyric experiments that annoy or fail to resolve to prevent me proclaiming this the logical progression, in a fair world, to Yoshimi on muscle relaxants, but it’s a close call. Buzz, key songwriter, manages to cover dreamlike Flaming Lips-esque psychedelia on ‘Beautiful Day’ and ‘We’re So Lost’, Merseybeat harmonies on ‘Ride of Your Life’ and Kid A lush drifting on ‘Feel’, yet in ‘B your Boy’ and ‘King Kong’ (released in 2002 and still going strong) they write two of the most fantastically dumb, catchy singalong pop-rock anthems New Zealand’s had since Goodshirt did ‘Green’. Actually, Voom has inherited Goodshirt’s rhythm section, and along with it their knack for a pop hook it seems. This is an album cleaned up or perhaps wised up from the debut. Studio mistakes and silly noises are deliberate and crafted this time round, and while it can be charming on Hello, Are You There? it can equally become pretty superfluity on ‘Let’s Go Home’ or ‘You Were A Man’. For all that, this is largely an album of one perfectlyformed song after another. The intensity and beauty of Buzz’s voice ensures that even a line like “I wanna be your boy so bad” comes off as much more than pop cliché. He really, really means it, and for all you winsome but hopeful kids, the soundtrack to bedsitland is here.