Dye It Blonde Fat Possum****

The second album from the youthful, wide-eyed Chicago pop wizards is light years ahead of where we left them last time around. For their self-titled debut, they were scrappy garage-rock metal gurus, heavily in thrall to a Nuggets sound and style. They've kept some of the glam touches for Dye It Blonde, but the songwriting and arrangements have gotten a higher priority. No doubt Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Beach House producer Chris Coady helped them fine-tune that new game plan, but most of the improvements are down to the band. The glorious Still Newis a sign of how things have changed, a lovely, swinging, swooning tune with just the right dash of John Lennon and power-pop. Elsewhere, Weekend, Dance Awayand Imagine Pt 3all add to the sense of a band full of imagination and daring now prepared to take giant steps. See myspace.com/smith westerns

Download tracks: Still New, Imagine Pt 3, Weekend