LOOKING for the post-June sound of summer evenings? Here come Tahiti 80 and their second album, a sublime sequel to 2000's Puzzle. What a puzzle they are.

Xavier Boyer, Mederic Gontier, Sylvain Marchand and Pedro Resende are as French as onion soup but they recorded 'Wallpaper' in America, the wistful vocals are utterly English, and inside one song (The Train) they remind you of Prefab Sprout one moment, New Order the next, never to do so again.

The album title could not better sum up the contrary ways of a quartet who love in equal measure the latest computer pop technology, the Sixties grooves of Curtis Mayfield and the timeless orchestral methods of the Urban Soul Orchestra, guest contributors on strings, woodwind and horns on four tracks.

The 'wallpaper' is the outwardly sunny disposition of songwriter Boyer's mellow-yellow music, bathing the soul in light and wonder to counter the melancholia of his wishful yet vulnerable and cautionary lyrics.

If Spiritualized made a Beach Boys album, the wallpaper would surely match Tahiti 80's design. In the meantime, this sweet poison is the coolest, most seductive, summer comedown record since Primal Scream's decadent delight Screamadelica.

Just as Tahiti 80 are not what they outwardly appear, so a blind tasting of The Thrills would tag them as slacker Californians in thrall to Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson and the West Coast sound. In fact they are five young men from Dublin, average age 23, who are as fixated as Teenage Fanclub, Orange Juice and the Cosmic Rough Riders on the mythic sunshine falling on the other side of the musical Pond.

Like students undertaking a research sabbatical or making a holiday movie in the style of a favourite director, they decamped to San Diego for the summer in a rented beach hut: time to perfect their homage and hone their thesis on intoxicating music for a never-ending summer.

The name checking takes in Santa Cruz, Big Sur, Las Vegas and Hollywood -the perfect California crash course - on this cheery, sometimes cheesy wish-fulfilment record, but So Much For The City is no mere pastiche or empty exercise in having fun. The melancholic Deckchairs And Cigarettes and Old Friends, New Lovers point to The Thrills acquiring more depth in future. The spills of autumn and winter will follow the Thrills' escapist summer, so enjoy this sunshine while it lasts.

Updated: 15:04 Thursday, July 03, 2003