Review: Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever's Indie-Rock Marvel 'Hope Downs'

This Melbourne band's full-length debut is a minor marvel: 10 perfectly pitched guitar-pop songs, not a dud among 'em. There are echoes of other bands – generous handfuls of R.E.M. and the Cure, mostly, with a little New Order and Television thrown in – but they make it all sound absurdly crisp and new, like some kind of magic trick.
Take "Mainland," the album's third track and one of several instant winners. The lyrics are a revolving door of Kings of Leon-ish clichés ("I sai