Sweetness & Light Plus Dave’s Top 10 List

“There is a season for everything under heaven,” sang the Byrds, lifting from the Bible. There are times when edge and grit and innovation are the thing. And then there are times when only straight up melody, harmony and hooks will do.

One of the latter examples has to be right after the bustle and overindulgence of the holidays n exhaustion for the lucky, worse for the less fortunate.

But sunny pop needn’t be all mindlessness or frivolity. (Although I’m a big fan of both.) No, cheerfulness and earnest optimism can still have a brain. Here are two examples of pop that will melt all but the hardest of hearts n and as a bonus, do so without lowering the IQ.

GUSTER has been around since 1991, when the original three members met at Tufts University. Evolving from an acoustic folk act to a more fully-realized pop act, Guster even gets hung with the “power” prefix when they’re discussed. But there’s not much in the way of metalization going on here. Crunchy guitars are used for accents; the main ingredients are the soaring vocals (but not U2 belting-to-the-back-row stuff) and imaginative arrangements.

Their newest, “EASY WONDERFUL,” is truth in packaging for sure n it’s really hard not to like what’s on display.

“Architects and Engineers” starts off with a melodic figure so simple that I actually cringed. But the vocals come in with a variation that saves it completely, and the arrangement and witty wordplay justify the song’s lead-off position. The song sets a template for what follows n wistful, even sad (and sometimes a bit snarky) lyrics set to uplifting melodies.

If there’s any anxiety in the message of “Do You Love Me,” there’s only jaunty swagger in the execution, what with chiming bells and handclaps providing uplift.

“This Could All Be Yours” seems to want to have it both ways n celebrating positivity while cataloging some of society’s cheesiest aspects.

“Stay With Me Jesus” is the first of a few overtly religious-themed cuts. Here the band uses the first-person to underscore the absurdity of invoking divine intervention when the vagaries of chance spare and strike with complete randomness. But again, the tune doesn’t have a hint of dourness, what with “hallelujahs” answering the narrator’s story.

The next cut, “Bad Bad World,” despite its title, cannot be read as anything but an ode to the bright side. Either that or it’s too cynical by half. “There is love, there is peace in this world/So take it back it, say it’s not what you had thought.” Swathed in the album’s most satisfying sonic embrace, the song is the album’s centerpiece.

“This Is How It Feels To Have A Broken Heart” n no way, right? No problem, self-pity is given a sound beat-down only four bars in. “Jesus and Mary” comes closest to some form of angst, with lines like “Let’s go start a war,” and a beat that approaches funk, but there’s no moping.

“Hercules” actually contains some minor chords, but with its banjo (recall Steve Martin’s bit about the instrument’s relentless joyfulness) and sweet chorus it ends up on top of the equator. “Do What You Want” ends the standard-issue CD with a synth-laden Euro-pop anthem, but I’d spring for the deluxe edition offered by Amazon n it’s got three more keepers, “Jonah” prominent among them.

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN is full-on pop, with no pretense otherwise. Not the boy/girl duo its name implies, but a seven-person, coed conglomeration, B & S have been around since 1996, long enough to have developed a sizable and passionate following.

If you want to join in, you’d be well-advised to check any cynicism, punk rage, ennui or extra testosterone at the door. Its leader, Stuart Murdoch, sets the tone with small-scale introspection but generously shares the spotlight with others both in and out of the band. Lead lines are traded off, background singers swoop off and on center stage.

Not afraid of beauty, B & S explore the shades of love with honesty and reverence.

Their newest, “WRITE ABOUT LOVE,” is another title seemingly mandated by the truth police.

The opener, “I Didn’t See It Coming,” kicks in with a complex but downright funky drum line. A simple piano figure appears, and then Sarah Martin sighs, “Make me dance, I want to surrender,” and you’re in B & S bliss.

“Come On Sister” motors through Mario Bros.-style organ and a road-invoking beat while the protagonist alternately cajoles and challenges the song’s subject to fess up and get in the game.

“Calculating Bimbo” is not an Elvis Costello kiss-off, but rather the most vulnerable moment on the album.

“I Want the World to Stop” approaches a sweat-breaking pace, but the chill cool of the boy-girl singers stifles the first bead from forming. You could dance to this, but it wouldn’t be of the ecstatic variety. “Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John” follows with a legitimate duet between Murdoch and (the) Norah Jones. Missed opportunities and blown chances are shared, but the difference in what’s regretted reveals the reason for the break-up.

The title track etches its minute details amid 1960’s Brill Building bounce and strings. What follows, ”I’m Not Living in the Real World,” is not my favorite song on this here album.

Things pick up with the sultry, then inspiring “The Ghost of Rockschool.” Great melody, a can’t-be-hurried pace, twangy guitar and plangent horns surround Murdoch’s most searching lyrics about seeing “God in the street … in the puddles … in your reflection” … a soul-stirrer.

“Read the Blessed Pages” is a very quiet ode to love that’s over before it awakes. “I Can See Your Future” is the prettiest female-lead tune, with a transcendent chorus lifted by swelling strings and massed horns.

“Sunday’s Pretty Icons” is a luminous send-off that seeks to wrap its arms around contradictory notions and then to reconcile them. Again, if you opt for the Amazon version, you’re treated with the bonus “Last Trip,” a giddy piece of lustful desire that doesn’t really fit what comes before n but it’s really good, as is the whole record.

DAVE’S TOP 10 for 2010

I am a total sucker for year-end lists. List-love has not compelled me, until now, to write one of my own. I now know why. It’s damn hard.

1) Mavis Staples nYou’re Not Alone

2) Peter Wolf n Midnight Souvenirs

3) (tie) The Roots n How I Got Over

John Legend & The Roots n Wake Up!

4) Galactic n Ya-Ka-May

5) Jenny and Johnny n I’m Having Fun

Now

6) Menomena n Mines

7) Justin Townes Earle n Harlem River

Blues

8) The Black Keys n Brothers

9) Afrocubism

10) Superchunk n Majesty Shredding

11) LCD Soundsystem n This Is

Happening

12) JJ Grey & MOFRO n Georgia

Warhorse

13) Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings n I

Learned the Hard Way

(I said it was hard n hard to keep it to just 10.)