You have to wonder whether the band's title is a family secret, or an attention-grabbing device, but there's no denying that "Gay Dad" is capable of writing catchy material. Their sound starts with basic pop/rock formulas, but keeps adding to it until the listener is presented with a kaleidoscope of noise that is a lot of fun to listen to. Their debut album, "Leisure Noise" may not have achieved the success predicted for the band by the perpetually hyperactive British music press, but it is an amazing, positively seductive album.

"Leisure Noise" pulls you in right from the start, when "Dimstar" gets things moving with James Riseboro's lucid, floating keyboard lines dancing over Nigel Hoye's active, fuzzy bass. A few psychadelic touches are tossed in at various angles, adding to that dreamy feeling. As it ends, the distorted opening guitars to "Joy" kick in, eventually giving way to a highly addictive, stand-up-and-cheer uplifter of a pop song.

Later, "Blackghost" begins with an ethereal minute-plus intro. After main songwriter/band leader Cliff Jones chimes in with his vocals, the track continues for a another 6 minutes in full psychadelic, near hippie jam mode. A simple, repetitive drum pattern from Nick Crowe is overlaid by an array of layers, beginning with ex-member Charley Stone's swirling guitar. The track ends with an eerily throbbing noise fading in and out of the earphones. As is the case with a number of tracks on "Leisure Noise," "Blackghost" leads directly into the next track, "To Earth With Love," the band's first ever single. A total 180 degree turn from "Blackghost," "To Earth With Love" is a raucous number, and opens with Jones' prescription for a better day, "Use the latest science to make your world a better place/ Icicles and SRIs take the edge and send those blues away." (SRI refers to anti-depressive drugs like Prozac).

"Dateline" traces a path through a protagonist's life, from the 1970s through the '90s, from the time he "started feeling blue - back in 1972" to when "1984 - school was out for summer/ I was hot for teacher," through "1999 - it's the end of modern time." Another up-tempo song, the majority of the tune has a mid-'70s Elton John vibe to it. At the end, "Gay Dad" slows the pace down, in favor of a dramatized, Radiohead-leaning exit.

The best song on the album is "Pathfinder." Lush production, carried along with a subtle, yet ever present, ever active bassline from Nigel Hoye, with a slight hint of delay in the guitars, this song just washes over the listener in waves. The chorus asks the object of affection to, "Kiss me like the ocean breeze/ Kiss me like you still remember," and with the perfectly restrained backing vocals augmenting Jones' main voice, you can almost feel those breezes. "Pathfinder" approaches my definition of the perfect pop song.

Come to think of it, I might be tempted to apply the "perfect" tag to "Leisure Noise" as a whole. With a good variety of up-tempo rockers and langorous, moody ballads, and a couple of absolute pop gems, "Gay Dad" have created one of 1999's better albums.