Haven - Between the Senses (2002)

Epochs pass, musical trends come and go, but rock always seems to return to its two most primal building blocks: a compelling voice and driving guitar. Cut through the critical rhetoric comparing Haven singer Gary Briggs's emotive style to the late Jeff Buckley, and it's hard to miss the mesmerizing, trans-generational guitar work of Nat Watson. Consider that their official bio has Watson and Briggs meeting in a hometown Cornwall, England, record store as they quibbled over a copy of Quicksilver Messenger Service's Happy Trails, and it's assumed their roots go a little deeper than the vaunted sounds of Manchester, where Haven shrewdly relocated in '99. Midwifed by former Smith's manager Joe Moss and that band's legendary guitarist Johnny Marr (who produced this sparkling debut), the band quickly racked up a string of promising U.K. singles, some of which (like "Beautiful Thing" and "Let It Live" included here) recall the original drama and power of U2's Boy and October wed to a sonic ethos that imagines Radiohead as a little less coy about their pop fetishes. --Jerry McCulley