Every month, Will Scott reviews a CD release from new talent or established performers. You can read his recommendations

THIS month we have a sugar-coated, candy-flavoured, lip-smacking, jingly-jangly, tip-top, mad-for-it album with a cherry on top which captures the very essence of modern pop music.

Who in the name of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo has managed to find the holy grail of pop, I hear you cry?

Dublin-based five-piece The Thrills that's who!

So Much for The City is an album of three-minute pop gems; which means although I love it now I'll probably hate it with a venomous passion this time next year.

But let's enjoy this band now, before they sell out and become like the rest of the malady-ridden malaise currently polluting our hit parade.

It's been somewhat of a meteoric rise for the Irish band, who are now based in Los Angeles with their studio just a 20-minute walk from Hollywood Boulevard.

They signed a record deal in September last year, played their first UK gig less than a month later at the Royal Albert Hall under the patronage of Morrissey, and now have released their debut album in less than eight months.

The album, which includes all three of The Thrills' singles Santa Cruz (You're Not That Far), One Horse Town, and Big Sur is an Epicurean delight full of handsome hedonistic harmonies amid a maelstrom of melodies.

Their music takes the very best and worst of The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Bacharach and David and The Walker Brothers.

But it is hardly surprising they have captured the essence of west coast California, considering they have spent the past seven months there.

The band seem to be the antithesis to indie-angst but whether that is a good or a bad thing I haven't yet quite decided.

The Thrills say they are dedicated to the Brian Wilson's of this world; people who lose the plot despite having everything.

It could be true but at the moment they seem content trying the shoes of both Travis and Coldplay.

And you know what? They fit.