Though there's nothing particularly "radical" and certainly not new about the music on Brainwashed, upstart Gregg Alexander's debut disc is one of the most enjoyable albums of the year. It's the kind of album that makes you want to hop in your car and drive around aimlessly just so you can crank it up and sing along. In a year that has offered very few rays of light, Brainwashed sparkles with wit and feel-good pop savvy.

The songwriting, the arrangements and especially his singing, bear an uncanny resemblance to Karl Wallinger (World Party, the Waterboys), to the point that I seriously scoured the liner notes for an asterik that stated: * By the way, Gregg Alexander is really Karl Wallinger. But to no avail. Ironically, Karl writes songs that are intentionally derivative of his musical heroes--namely the Rolling Stones, Prince, Dylan and Jeff Lynne of E.L.O.

It all makes for quite a copycat whodunnit. But as far as I'm concerned it doesn't matter who is borrowing what from whom, however noble or unintentional, this is a great album. Somehow it manages to be both fresh and unaffected, while echoing the sensibilities of pop craftsmen from the past. It's a good kind of deja vu, and it definitely thrusts upon us a promising new artist in the person of Gregg Alexander. I just don't like the name he chose. He should've called himself the PrinceStones.