Pop/Rock - Wearing your influences so proudly on your sleeve can often work against you. After all, if you're simply recycling melodies, riffs and production style of another era, why bother? Fortunately for the quirkily named Ivan and Alyosha, Seattle duo Tim Wilson and Ryan Carbury's love of 60's and 70's pre-punk Brit Invasion pop/rock may serve as a defining touchstone but the lovingly crafted nuggets that emerge from their debut EP The Verse, The Chorus (Cheap Lullaby) have the superb songwriting chops behind them to let them be judged on their own exemplary merits.

Like San Francisco's late, great Jellyfish, Portland's Shins, Scotland's Del Amitri and Travis and Boston's Bleu, Ivan and Alyosha's affinity for Lennon and McCartney, ELO's Jeff Lynne, T-Rex's Marc Bolan (and the more modern derivations) is pretty clear from the outset. But stripped of the homage-heavy production, songs such as "Beautiful Lie" and "Easy To Love" still have the gloriously hummable and inventively twisty melodies intact to stand up to the most meticulous retro comparisons. Choruses soar, guitars jangle, harmonies swoon and all is right with the world again -- somebody really does make 'em like they used to. Recommended.

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Ivan and Alyosha - "Easy to Love" (from the EP The Verse, The Chorus)

Ivan and Alyosha - "Beautiful Lie" (from the EP The Verse, The Chorus)