Is it possible that the best rock record released this year will go completely unnoticed by the American music loving public? Well, of course it's possible -- it happens all the damn time. But in this case, the lunkheadedness of the general populace is not to blame; it's You Am I's label, BMG Australia, which at this time has not chosen to pursue overseas licensing for their best band's best album yet. A crying shame.

You Am I have been the biggest rock band (indie or not) in Australia for quite a few years -- they've had something like three of their albums enter the charts at #1. Despite this, they have yet to make anything less than a minor dent in the US market. Previous releases have catered more to the power-pop fetishist than to the average rock fan, but Dress Me Slowly, if their record company would just let it, has the potential to bring this excellent band the legions of worldwide fans that they so richly deserve.

In their previous two releases, 1997's power-pop masterpiece Hourly, Daily and 1998's richer, more diverse #4 Record, You Am I have slowly moved away from the Kinks-meets-XTC-meets-The-Replacements power pop bash in which their earlier records were awash. Although both of these records could easily be classified as "power pop", they portrayed the band as concentrating more on great songcraft, and less on a cohesive sound -- which actually worked in their favor. This willingness to experiment yielded such gems as the soulful "Come Home Wit' Me" (from #4 Record) and contemplative, rootsy numbers like "Heavy Heart" (#4 Record) and "Please Don't Ask me to Smile" (from Hourly, Daily).

That said, the songs on Dress Me Slowly range from really, really good to flat-out astounding. Running the gamut from hard-charging yet wistful rockers like "Satisfied Mind" and "Bring Some Sun Back" to heartstring-pulling ballads like "Damage", and from stomping, horn-laden garage rockers like "Doug Sahm" and "End O' the Line" to everything in between, this record has something for everyone. Tim Rogers' songwriting skills are such that these tracks could have been presented as lo-fi four-track demos, and would still have been just as affecting as the major-label treatment they receive here. Thankfully, producer Clif Norrell has head planted firmly on shoulders, and pretty much keeps it simple, stupid. When embellishments do arise, it's only to further the mood of the song, as when a mournful marching brass section enters two-thirds of the way into the elegiac yet swinging "Weeds", adding emotional heft to Rogers' words, which suggest the futility of trying to fight against fate: "Leaves they fall, but you know you're never gonna sweep 'em all/And weeds they grow, peekin' on out through the grass and snow".

Plain-spoken, insightful lines such as these show just how much Rogers has grown as a songwriter. Although he's always been an excellent wordsmith, some of his previous work could potentially be classified as "too clever", especially to dumb American audiences. Not so here, where Rogers has found a new lyrical simplicity that suits his songs perfectly. On "Beautiful Girl", in which Rogers details his infatuation with a new girl to a friend, he sings "She's got me grinning like a karaoke king/Without a clue on how the thing begins/And that's just where the hell I'll reside/In between the width of her smile/So if you spy me just let me be/I'm far beyond what you knew of me." The joy and transformation inherent in the start of a new relationship has rarely been conveyed with such a winning combination of wit and tenderness.

The album is chock full of moments like these, coupled with hooks so indelible that you'll be singing these songs for weeks. These are not wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am hooks, however -- they are so carefully crafted and skillfully rendered that every time you hear these songs, a new lyric or instrumental section will invariably reach out of the mix and grab you by the throat. The liner notes have this to say about the songs on Dress Me Slowly: "Songs that grab you by the hand, waltz you past the charlatans then make sweet love to you against the front gates for all to see". Couldn't have said it better myself.