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Spotting influences on this Canadian band’s winning debut doesn’t take much work: “Luciana” could easily pass as an outtake from Neutral Milk Hotel’s debut, and both the Shins’ sweet winsomeness and Arcade Fire’s collective clattering poke out elsewhere. But chief architect Nils Edenloff never gets bogged down in slavish imitation.

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This throwbackin’ threesome -- an expanded version of frontman Guy Blakeslee’s subdued solo outing under the name Entrance -- kills it when they stick to the classic power-trio formula. “Grim Reaper Blues” towers like Blue Cheer, winking at stoner rock on its seven-minute journey back to the source. And a painfully sincere ode to MLK gets over via sheer psych-rock mania.

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The French-language-only policy of grandiose Montreal indie band Malajube might be distracting if frontman Julien Mineau’s vocals weren’t so gauzily blended together with all the kinetic sounds around them. In fact, English speakers might just do what they do when confronted with Sigur Rós: make up their own semi-sensical phrases and sing along anyway.

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These Brit kids didn’t splash as much as expected in 2007 with their proudly working-class tales of Coventry street life, so they reached into the tackle box for some stadium bait. And while there are still a couple of Jam-like snarlers on album two, the aping of Oasis’ more bloated days sinks things quickly.