The Organ - Grab That Gun

TS Eliot once observed that good poets borrow while great poets steal. The Organ, an all-female five-piece from Vancouver, seem to have taken him at his word and nicked it all from The Cure, a band famous for inspiring devotion, if not outright deification, among their supporters. Their debut album's sound, all billowing guitars and gothy atmospherics, will surely remind our older readers of some lost mid-eighties club night. Robert Smith's lawyers need not worry, though, The Organ aren't quite a tribute act. Their melodies are bouncy and well-crafted, and their strongest songs, like those of Smith et al., lovingly document the thrill of adolescent romance and heartbreak. This album's real attraction, however, is lead singer Kate Sketch's resonant voice, which recalls His Name Is Alive's Karin Oliver, even if the band lacks any of Warn Defever's experimental leanings. [Andrew Monroe]