Remember The Thrills? The band from Ireland who made records that sounded like they’d been written by Brian Wilson? If you can, then good for you.  If you can’t then you won’t remember how surprised people were when they realised that the lads weren’t all called Al, Dennis or Carl, or that they didn’t own 409’s, or come from Hawthorne California.  Which leads us to Mt. Misery, because if pop perfect, blissed out, songs with glorious harmonies look out of place on a bunch of Dubliner’s, god only knows what people will make of similar sounds coming from a collection from Hartlepool; it’s hardly got the same climate as Topanga Valley.  Don’t worry for a second about where this album was born, or it’s aspirations, this is a stunning piece of west-coast based pop with the warmest melodies you may well hear all year.  Perfect.