Australia's Hoodoo Gurus are one of the few Sixties-obsessed bands worth a damn. At the band's best, as on 1986's giddy Mars Needs Guitars!, songs like "Bittersweet" and "Like Wow – Wipe-out" scorch with refreshing irreverence. Too many backward-looking bands tread lightly on their heroes; the Hoodoo Gurus rock out. Blow Your Cool is more of the same, with all the growth you'd hope for from a developing band. Guitarist Brad Shepherd has expanded his vocabulary, and he's learned how to slip chunks of reverb into singer-guitarist Dave Faulkner's songs and comment on them without being distracting. Bassist Clyde Bramley and drummer Mark Kingsmill consistently find the appropriate mix of restlessness and support to kick the tracks into fifth gear.

This is Faulkner's most consistent collection of songs yet. The breakup rocker "Out That Door," the bewildered "What's My Scene," the poppy, forward-looking "Good Times" (featuring cushiony background vocals by the Bangles) and the raving put-down "Where Nowhere Is" all move briskly and unpretentiously. The Hoodoo Gurus are still an album or two away from breaking out of their Sixties mold, but for now, hearing them mature at such a rapid pace is enough to blow your cool. (RS 501)

JIMMY GUTERMAN