On its major-label debut, Emits Showers of Sparks, artful Austin quartet Sixteen Deluxe offers a witty pastiche of clean-cut '80s pop layered with up-to-the-second guitar-and-electronica distortion. Blistering power chords and beguilingly off-kilter vocal harmonies from Carrie Clark and Chris Smith make "No Shock (in Bubble)" the most rousing cut, but there's enough dark noise roughing up the disc's dozen pretty melodies to keep the sweetness in check. B+
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