While it's the presence of indie goddess
Rose Melberg that will undoubtedly cause a stir among the twee-pop kids,
Mitsumeru deserves to be taken solely on its own terms -- with Melberg primarily hanging in the background,
Gaze is instead left to sink or swim on the talents of
Miko Hoffman and
Megan Mallett, and they've delivered a superb album with a charming beauty all its own. Granted, it's difficult not to compare
Mitsumeru to the music of
Tiger Trap or the Softies, but that's as much a result of the uniform excellence of Gaze's songs as it is of the groups' sonic similarities -- tracks like "Shady," "Jelly-Bean" and "Anyway" are deceptively simple and insidiously catchy, by turns sharply witty and crushingly sad. A wonderful debut.