Pop-Rock Delicacies in a Super-Sonic Debut

**** SONICHROME, “Breathe the Daylight,” Capitol

The Orange County trio’s debut album is a real pop-rock delicacy, rich in varied flavors and textures and moods, not a weak song in the bunch--if you don’t count a pedestrian, 15-minute instrumental slog tacked on as filler at the end that sounds like Neil Young & Crazy Horse endlessly lumbering through the coda riff of “Layla.”

The album is as loaded as a top-of-the-line BMW, as Sonichrome shines in too many pop modes and moods to enumerate briefly.

“Over Confident,” the opening track, marries the bubbly insouciance of Abba or the Partridge Family to a more mature crunch-rock sound; a couple of songs with sweeping strings are strongly redolent of the Electric Light Orchestra; fragments of others quote the Beatles and Foreigner, albeit unintentionally.

“Innocent Journey” departs from the questioning tone of personal struggle that dominates the lyrics for the sheer, jangling, bouncing roots-rock effervescence of Buddy Holly and Nick Lowe; “Saloman,” a raw rocker about a kid awaiting contact with extraterrestrials, sounds like Pearl Jam at its least muscle-bound.

“There Was 2” and “Folding” are wistful ballads of naked feeling and unqualified loveliness. The first single is “Honey Please,” which rides a carnival keyboard reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart,” while similarly tying anguished experience to exuberant music. (Chris Karn says he wrote it after flunking an audition for Arista Records mogul Clive Davis.)

Throughout, Karn’s explosive, tautly conceived guitar work casts him as a young heir to Adrian Belew, the Talking Heads/King Crimson guitarist who is both a sonic adventurer on guitar and a pure-pop Beatles devotee in much of his singing and songwriting.

*

Albums are rated on a scale of * (poor) to **** (excellent), with *** denoting a solid recommendation.