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Chapel Club - Palace

The debut from British band Chapel Club - Palace - seems designed for Eyewear's aural pleasure.  Ricocheting from the dream-pop sounds of early Nick Heyward/Haircut 100, to the lighter side of Echo & The Bunnymen, with a bit of shoegazing thrown in for good measure, this is a moody, new romantic jangly-guitar indie circa 1981 album that makes a nonsense of the passing of three decades.  The style holds up, and while this will either sound (to come-again ears such as mine) like immaculate retro, or simply good pop for first-timers too young to care about forebears, it won't win any prizes for moving music ahead one iota.  Still, it joins Hurts, and the recent White Lies albums, as keeping the 80s sounds alive and kicking.

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