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Jackdaw 4 | Bipolar Diversions The secret to making a great, melodic pop record in 2007 is as it has always been: Wear your influences on your sleeves, both of them, but make sure the thing comes out sounding like you. Any cook can combine ingredients, but only a real artist can create a meal. And be sure to stock up on chutzpah, because you're going to need it.

But chutzpah will only get you so far, so you'd better be dripping with the creative spark that defines great melodic pop records. That spark, in all its amazing glory, is what drives and populates Jackdaw4's sensational Bipolar Diversions, a collection of songs that is a wonder to behold.

Multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Willie Dowling and the rest of the Jackdaws obviously have the gift of melody-infused craft dripping out of every pore. Assimilating the sounds of pop's rich past, Dowling and his co-writers are paying homage as much as they are advancing the music's art. One listen to the incredible and exciting "My Little Gangsta" will prove how serious Dowling and crew are. An engaging song about kids with chips on their shoulders who exhibit too much anger not only manages to echo (mostly) the Who and (fleetingly) the Beatles (the quick-or-you'll-miss-it, down-and-dirty fab guitar riff with about 1:15 to go) but also the Beach Boys, during a sweet-and-sour middle section concerning none other than controversial writer and commentator Ann Coulter that puts the crux of the lyrics into rather pointed perspective. The Jackdaws accomplish all of this in a mere four minutes and 22 seconds and the effect is quite exhilarating. Plus, you can dance to it.

Dowling and company's melodic sense, not to mention their considerable instrumental prowess, is mesmerizing throughout this album. Take the lovely "Sleep," a perfect closer whose backgrounds and harmonies echo the sound and spirit of the Association. Similarly, the joyous opener, "Sooma (All this Vision)," is instantly infectious, exhibiting a strong affection for Jellyfish-style vocals.

While there are plenty of Jellyfish winks throughout Bipolar Diversions (picking out the Jellyfish references in these songs could be the new parlor game that sweeps any nation), there are also a couple of nods to a decidedly non-pop act. How deep Dowling is into Pink Floyd I don't know, but I'd guess pretty deep indeed. How else to explain the spot-on homage to "The Trial" from Floyd's The Wall that populates the verses of "Heimlich's Manoeuvres"? It's all quite astounding and imaginative and wonderful (the Floyd also influence, in a much less obvious way, the opening of the clever, poppy, decidedly Jellyfish-y "Frobisher's Last Stand," and a beautiful, instrumental passage toward the end of the title cut.)

Populating their songs with interesting characters, such as the morally-spent mortals of the retro-jazzy, vaguely-vaudevillian "Jesus Wants My Soul Back," and myriad, welcome influences (the aforementioned suspects, and 10cc in the opening to the title cut), Jackdaw4 have, with Bipolar Diversions, leapt into the top rank of melodic pop artists working today. Weaving in and out of song styles and tempos like fearless, musical magicians, they are the definition of cool, man, and you have only to spin this hall-of-fame record to feel the effect. Bipolar Diversions is simply fantastic stuff.

Alan Haber

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