Album Review: Little Green Cars - Absolute Zero

Their country might still be reeling from the worst financial crisis in decades, but try telling Irish band Little Green Cars that uplifting pop music is dead. Soaring melodies, catchy choruses and an attitude that flies higher than any bailout are the order of the day for this band on their debut record Absolute Zero.

Little Green Cars can be slotted in some kind of alt.country, modern-day Americana genre (alt-icana? If that term takes off, remember where you read it first). Throughout their recent tour of the USA – where, among other things, they dominated SXSW – comparisons to everyone from the Dixie Chicks (ambitious) to Band Of Horses (much more apt) abounded.

The harmonies on tracks like My Love Took Me Down To The River (To Silence Me) sounds as though it could've been lifted from the latter's most recent album, but there's also a distinctly European sound to songs such as The Consequences Of Not Sleeping (think Tallest Man On Earth) or first single The John Wayne (listen to Danish band The Kissaway Trail and the similarities will be clear).

Full of variety – the auto-tuned vocals of Red And Blue are like something off Kanye West's 808's And Heartbreaks album, and on tracks like the tender The Kitchen Floor, vocalist Faye O'Rourke does her best Florence Welch impression – Absolute Zero is a gem of a pop record. Little Green Cars would undoubtedly have grand plans simmering in the background, and the scope of four- and five-part harmonies belie this fact, but for now it's great to hear the passion and excitement that Absolute Zero is delivered with. Whether on a Texan plain or in a hot tub in Scandinavia, Absolute Zero is a winner.