Golden Shoulders

This Nevada City group features singer-guitarist-songwriter Adam Kline and bassist Jason Graham (both from another pop group called the Gears), along with drummer Todd Roper (Cake, Deathray) and lead guitarist Rich Good. Kline comes from the arched-eyebrow school of pop songwriting, heavy on the more thespian leanings of such dandies as the Kinks’ Ray Davies and Hunky Dory-era David Bowie. This group debut should please any dedicated follower of fashion, along with most Anglophiles; Kline’s sonic vision was given full flower by team Deathray (recorded and mixed by Greg Brown, Victor Damiani and Kline and mastered by Dana Gumbiner), which added proper amounts of sweet ear candy or dry 1960s-era Shel Talmy sonic vision wherever needed. Kline wrote all 13 songs. Not all of them shine with brittle brilliance, but such ditties as “Spirit of 78,” “Genius” and “Overhead Underground” are quite swell.