With a pair of EPs under their belt, dreamy indie-popsters from down under The Paper Kites have just released their debut full-length album, States. Their mellow and melancholy sound is naturally compared to another Aussie band with a cult following, The Go-Betweens, but would fit in equally amongst Belle & Sebastian, The Dream Academy, and local heroes, Les Jupes. Without sounding dated, their sound is a throwback to late 80s college radio, when jangly and punctuated gave way to dreamy and ethereal. Nice bright guitar riffs and banjo fills in the mix give the smooth folk-pop a nice crispness to complete the sound. Mid-album they hit you with the slow-burning “Cold Kind Hand,” a duet delivered with such emotion by founding singers Sam Bentley and Christina Lacy that it leaves you breathless. “In Reverie” is a great Sundays meets Blue Rodeo mid-tempo rocker drenched in big, fat layers of reverb. While States lacks a definite hit single or defining sound, it shows that the Paper Kites are more than capable performers with a real knack for beautiful melodies and harmonies. (Nettwerk, thepaperkites.com.au) Broose Tulloch