Quick, Before It Melts.

I was never particularly impressed by Test Icicles, and therefore didn't really blink an eye when I heard news that they had split up and gone their separate ways. Now, I'm sort of glad that events transpired in the way they did, allowing ex-Icicle Devonte Hynes to re-emerge as Lightspeed Champion.

Falling Off The Lavender Bridge is his debut full-length, recorded in Omaha, Nebraska with Saddle Creek producer Mike Mogis. The influence of Mogis and many of the Omaha-based guest musicians is all over these arrangements, but Hynes is no slouch in the songwriting department. Without his strong writing as the foundation, Lavender Bridge would probably just sink to the bottom of the alt-country pond.

First single "Galaxy Of The Lost" sounds like The Dears with slide guitar; Hynes and Dears front man Murray Lightburn have a very similar timbre in their voices. By the next track, "Tell Me What It's Worth," Hynes reminds me of Conor Oberst accompanying one of the best pop tracks I've heard so far this year. Then once you get down to "Dry Lips" you can't help but feel the influence of Bloc Party (if only faintly). The genre-hopping doesn't detract from the overall impact of the album, though. If anything it makes ...Lavender Bridge a journey through the city, into the countryside and back again, with the scenery changing at every bend in the road.