Clever, melodramatic lyrics. Sing-along choruses. Bouncy beats. Smooth vocals. Who could ask for anything more? San Francisco duo Zikzak has crafted a pretty great pop album, along the lines of a more upbeat Elvis Costello or a less electronic Erasure. Well, that might be stretching it, but you get the idea. Go ahead and listen to "You Strike Me Down" and see if you can go more than a minute before you start dancing around in your socks, pretending you're Molly Ringwald. I dare you. "Shatterproof" comes darn close to setting up Zikzak for the "American Morrissey" title. "Everybody Look into the Sun" is a wonderful weird mix of dark, inspirational, beatles-lounge-pop. In addition to a fine chorus, "Anna Li" has some of the best lyrics on the CD. A couple of samples:

She can be a toothless hag or murderess
Cos my heart is as spacious/As hers is glacial

Not every tune on See You There is totally successful -- "You Choose" suffers a bit from David Rubinstein's peculiar vocal style (Todd Stadtman sings on all other tracks), and "You Say That Love Is Everything" strays dangerously close to the wrong side of the Queen equation. But these are mere quibbles (and besides, the strangeness of Rubinstein's voice has grown on me. Queen hasn't). This is great pop music: lush, weird, pretty and sad. Check it out.