If you've been choking on the recent glut of so-called "international pop," you might be inclined to avoid this two-disc, multi-country, 40-song compilation like the plague. You'd be cheating yourself, though. While you'll find no shortage of twee melodies, listlessly-strummed guitars, seventies pop flourishes, breathy girl / effeminate boy vocals and summery images, you'll also find a number of bands determined to defy the stereotypes of modern pop.

On disc one, Bennet's "Just Because I Liked You In the Summertime" scores a direct hit, combining gently off-key vocals with bristling, Blondie-style electric guitars and a bell-clear keyboard refrain. The lyrics break no new ground, but the tune itself is cheerfully unpredictable. This is followed by the Pearlfishers' "We're Gonna Save the Summer" -- an execrable title, but a beautiful reconstruction of a lush seventies-style radio hit. Also of note is Figurine's videogame-turned-drum'n'bass snippet "My Suitor," which buoys half-hearted vocals with its irresistably bubbly analog melody, and Speedboat's "Truckin' Back to You," an unusually robust pop tune that's an obvious attempt to play the Del Amitri card. You'll also get another chance to own Fonda's essential "The Invisible Girl", a Splendid fave. The true treasure here, however, is Barcelona's spurned-geek anthem "I've Got the Password to Your Shell Account," which pairs a throbbing keyboard rhythm with a delightful scorned lover turned unix-hacker tale. The chorus alone -- "I tried your birthday...I tried your mom's first name...I tried your cat's name...I tried your favorite band..." justifies disc one by itself.

Disc two has its own treats: Brideshead's "Arrogance or Elegance" offers a brain-tickling guitar melody, Cecilia Ann's "Gris" boasts the album's most perplexing vocal stylings, and Ray Wonder's "I've Been So Right," perhaps the disc's high point, swings crazily from orch-pop to art-rock to rave-up with delightful aplomb. Quirky vocal fans with gravitate to the California Oranges' "I Know You Feel the Same Way Too," while those bored with the English language will savor Me Enveneno De Azules' "Imagines" and Honey Skoolmates "Go Flow!" (which might be in English but sounds like it isn't).

The obvious concern with a compilation like Moshi Moshi is that 40 tracks of international pop is enough to hit almost anyone's saturation point. While many of these bands could establish a personality on their own, it's a lot harder with 39 similar-sounding bands so close at hand. Inevitably, some of the acts come off as cookie cutter copies. This leads directly to my other issue with the album, which is that despite the jet-set, country-hopping aspirations expressed in the packaging, there's not much sonic variation between different countries' bands. Because they're all aiming for the same sort of sound, each band's country of residence becomes largely irrelevant.

Ultimately, with a number of standout tracks and very little filler, Moshi Moshi should please and impress most of you. It's just less like an airplane journey, punctuated by stops in wildly different locales, than a trans-continental train ride, in which subtle variations in scenery must inevitably blur together over several hours.