I’ve only recently come across Luna by The Aliens but it’s quickly fighting it’s way towards the top of my “favorite albums released in 2008″ list (although it didn’t come out in the US until 2009, it was originally released on October 29, 2008.)

In general I’ve come to prefer shorter albums and I’ve been enjoying the recent trend towards albums that have about 10 songs and run about 35 minutes. Luna doesn’t follow the shorter album trend (it’s 13 tracks and over 60 minutes long) or just about any other trend for that matter. It reminds me a bit of the two fantastic albums by The Olivia Tremor Control that came out in 1996 & 1999. Although this album sounds much more “hi-fi” and modern than those two.

It shares with them an apparent love for the psychedelic eras of The Beatles & The Beach Boys and the goal of melting faces. This album feels like a “trip” and the more I listen to it the more I pick up on what a brilliant album it really is (which is much like my experience with The Olivia Tremor Control who also grew on me more and more with repeated listening.) Simply put, this album seems like it would be at home on Elephant 6.

The Aliens don’t seem to be trying to be the latest indie craze (and thus the fashion makers at Pitchfork have given Luna a poor review) instead they’re just making incredible mind melting pop rock that I think may, in the long run, have a lot more staying power than much of the music Pitchfork deems to be the latest and the greatest.

So who are The Aliens? Even if you’ve never heard of them before, I think you have definitely heard some music made by the members of this Scottish band before because all three of them used to be in The Beta Band (who broke up in 2004.) The lead singer is Gordon Anderson who was a founding member of The Beta Band along with Steve Mason (who was the lead singer for The Beta Band and is not in The Aliens.)

Anderson is thought of something like a “Syd Barrett of The Beta Band” as he had to leave the group due to mental issues. He then released two solo albums as “Lone Pigeon” in 2002 and 2004. I own the 2002 album, Concubine Rice and I’m a big fan of it. It’s an extremely lo-fi and scatter-brained album but it’s got a lot of moments of real beauty in it. “Boats” from Luna was originally on that album (in a far different form.)

The Aliens formed in 2005 and released their first album in 2007: Astronomy for Dogs. I have only heard a few tracks from that album, although considering my love for Luna, I am definitely planning on buying it – but only after I let Luna do it’s thing for awhile longer. I think it’s better to simmer in one album at a time than to become overwhelmed by a huge amount of new material at once.

I have digressed quite a bit here, haven’t I? What kind of album review is this? Well I’ll tell you what; There isn’t much music that’s come out over the past few years that has got me as excited as this album has. And no, it’s nothing much like The Beta Band. It’s much more “organic” sounding. It’s not all loops and MIDI triggered sounds (and I don’t mean that to come off as a snide remark, I love a lot of their stuff – especially The Three EPs & Hot Shots II.) This is a different direction and it sounds fantastic. There are lots of wonderful songs on the album (such as the aforementioned “Boats”) and there are also some really lovely (and very psychedelic) instrumental passages such as the title track.

If I had to make some sort of mathematical band equation for what this album sounds like I’d say it’s like some sort of combination of The Beta Band & The Olivia Tremor Control. If you like either of those bands you should check this album out. If you like both of them I would be extremely surprised if you don’t love this album as much as I do.