Concrete Playground

By the sounds of things, the whole time Adrian Deutsch was a member of Sydney's tight jeaned indie afficionados Red Riders, he was hard at study. His topic of choice was clean and sparkly pop, learning from the masters on his ipod, or tuning discreetly into 101.7 FM's "Classic Hits" between wowing the masses of teenagers at Red RIders shows. Since leaving the band he has put down an album of solo pop gems, headed to the tailor and traded the stovepipes for a well fitting suit, reinventing himself for a smarter and more studied audience that would appreciate his hooks and cheese (and we are talking the aged Parmigiano, not the Kraft singles).

Help You! is the title of his solo debut, and judging from the few songs on his myspace, it will be full of crafted pop, with leanings into easy listening and Bacharach-esque horns, with shouts to Gainsbourg, Elvis Costello and even some of Jarvis Cocker's work. I insist you listen to the title track Help You! as it is a real gem of a pop tune, with a smooth croon and smart arrangement with the production of Deutsch and Berkfinger (Philadelphia Grand Jury) pushing the pop hooks to the fore.

It will be interesting to see how he pulls it off live — the horns, pianos, layered vocals — but I'm sure with his capable band he will do a fine job of interpreting the songs.