New Sacred Cow (2003)

Cock an ear to New Sacred Cow, the recently released debut album from Ethiopian-born, Virginia-raised Kenna, who enlisted former schoolmate Chad Hugo (here working without Pharrell Williams and calling himself Chase Chad) to produce his CD. With Kenna's fey vocal style and myriad layers of hookily atmospheric keyboards, ''Cow'' recalls nothing so much as early-'80s British synth-pop after a postmillennial makeover. That's actually a good thing. (Go ahead, admit it -- you always sorta liked A Flock of Seagulls.) And it's an even better thing that Kenna, who cowrote the bulk of the songs with Hugo, has a knack for crafting the kind of perfect pop gems that go down easy in any era.

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