Poole: The Late Engagement

Alaska Days, the 1995 debut album by the Virginia band Poole, contained some of the decade's most exhilarating and woefully overlooked pop music. Breathless and shimmering, Alaska Days was devoid of tension and testosterone, but its sugar came packaged with enough endearing hooks to render the album virtually irresistible. Poole's new The Late Engagements doesn't cover a whole lot of new stylistic territory—though it dispenses with saccharine song titles like "Strawberry Kool Aid Smile"—but it fails to fully recapture the giddy magic of its predecessor. Sure, songs like "Glumb" and "Like Anybody" have just the right dose of springtime sunshine and fresh pop air. But when a 33-minute album only hits its mark about half the time, that's a problem. Poole is a wonderful band, but The Late Engagement doesn't live up to what it's done best in the past.