Cast

Bassist John Power left the La’s at the end of 1991, picked up a guitar and spent the next three years assembling Cast, a four-piece that lit up London beginning in 1995 and even had Oasis’ truculent Noel Gallagher singing its praises. All Change, which followed a couple of singles, shows what all the fuss was about. Cast slams forth with a combination of Merseybeat bop and American garage-rock drive — Freddie & the Dreamers meet the Seeds, if you can imagine that. With a refreshingly angst-free outlook, the John Leckie-produced album of bright, optimistic and irresistibly tuneful pop is neither silly nor simpy. A couple of songs (“Sandstorm,” “Walkaway”) tread a bit too close to Oasis’ sonic terrain, but that doesn’t stop Cast from being a formidable new soldier in the British re-invasion.