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Although the songs on Heaven might not be uniformly good, the Cincinnati-based Pomegranates bring the charm via killer guitar sounds, creative keyboards, and the girlish vocals of twin tenors Isaac Karns and Joey Cook (whose lighter-than-air musings buoy this collection). The title track is tons of silly pop fun, with cherubic vocals busting moves over scrawls of guitar and high-fructose church organ like an angel with a hot date. "Sisters" is an example of how great Pomegranates sound when they step on the distortion and crank up the jumbliness to near-Feelies levels. Heaven also does a decent job of showing Pomegranates' softer side; "Dream" is a completely respectable ballad. Likewise, "Something Everybody Wants" makes for a nice little awe-struck acorn of a song, complete with sci-fi keyboard accompaniment that harkens to the PBS theme for the late-'80s astronomy show Star Hustler. Aside from the highlights, though, other cuts here fall short of album quality, especially the last three selections, which are paint-by-number displays of chops and over-seriousness. Four musicians playing competent indie-pop/post-punk with occasional bursts of triumph might be a nice day at the park, but it's not sweet Elysian Fields.
