Dubliner Nina Hynes, along with her band, makes a bittersweet sort of rock music. She employs a pretty, fragile vocal style, at times sounding remarkably like Bjork. On "William Tell," Creation's opening track, she sounds so much like Bjork that the resemblance is a bit unnerving, or at least distracting. Still, the song presents a brutally sweet overture, mildly frightening in tone, but extremely pleasing and accomplished.

"This Magic Stuff" is the stunner of the six tracks here (seven if you count the bonus track found after thirteen minutes of silence). The song has the same sort of power that Seefeel hinted at back in the mid-'90s, though Hynes utilizes a much finer sense of melody. Reminiscent of Heather Nova's dark atmosphere, though injected with a cuter tone, the song springs and bounds across a dark, dreamy soundscape. Her backing band never betrays any hint of pretense throughout the blissful three and a half minutes. Guitars and electronics rarely blend so well in this sort of dream-pop genre. It's a twisting carnival of charmed prettiness.

"Trigger" sees Hynes and band attempting a more aggressive, ominous style. It's not entirely successful, and it does strike a kind of false note not apparent on the album's other tracks. The closing track, "Bring Me Alive," sounds like a long-lost Sinead O'Connor indie experiment. Though it's charming at first, it has overstayed its welcome by the time the seven minute mark comes around. The bonus track, a spooky Lisa Germano-like number, presents more of Hynes' darker side. At the very least, you can see her songs as part of the soundtrack to a Miramax film; when she's at her best musically, she deserves "cream dream" status (that's a Tenacious D reference by the way, and in no way meant to offend).

Nina Hynes is at her best when she leaves behind the Bjorkish mimicry, and it's hard to fault this fine collection of dreamy, stylish tunes. Unless she wants to be pegged as the front-runner for the lead-singer spot in a Sugarcubes cover band, she will hopefully concentrate more on her own, powerful thematics. Expect to hear more about and from Nina Hynes and her band as long as she can continue to produce such sparkling wonder as "This Magic Stuff."