For pure niceness, it’s hard to top The Ethnobabes’ brand of sugary California-style pop. How they manage to sound like 1960s Malibu Beach all the way up in Denmark is a mystery, but this album is the sonic equivalent of beach umbrellas, winding coastal highways, and gleaming convertibles. On Stargazer , chiming guitars combine with Eivor Vindenes’ lilting vocals to create a sound that is, well, Perfect Pop. Although their sound never varies much, tracks like “Captain Nemo’s Library” and album-closer “My Favourite Fool” interweave Vindenes’ voice with the ringing melodies especially well. At times (as on the opening “The Odd Shopper”), the ‘Babes veer dangerously close to nauseatingly saccharine, but for the most part this is more strawberry-dipped-in-melted-chocolate than cotton-candy-dipped-in-corn-syrup. Plus they toss in the odd screeching guitar solo to keep musical diabetics safe. It would probably be easy to dislike this if the girls didn’t just sound so damn nice.

P.S. The iddenhay acktray is 20 seconds of pure vocal sublimity.

Rating: ***(*)

– Jameson