When exactly was it that great pop music stopped being popular? This independently made gem by Shoes – those woefully underrepresented power-pop cult heroes from Zion, Illinois – raises that question in a big way. Like Marshall Crenshaw, Chris Isaak, the dB's and a host of others, Shoes have made album after album jammed with exquisite, Sixties-drenched should-have-been hits. Unfortunately, the elegant, well-crafted Beatlesque pop that once ruled the airwaves rarely reaches its rightful place on the radio these days.

Stolen Wishes is Shoes' strongest effort yet. The band's specialty remains three-minute blasts of pure melodic pop – artfully detailed tales of love gone wrong (and occasionally love gone right) delivered with breathy vocals, soaring harmonies and tough, ringing guitars.

John Murphy, Jeff Murphy and Gary Klebe have been fighting the good fight for more than fifteen years now. They made their first splash in 1977 with Black Vinyl Shoes, a low-budget beauty recorded with drummer Skip Meyer in Jeff Murphy's living room. That album earned Shoes a deal with Elektra, for which they made a trio of impressive albums, 1979's Present Tense, 1981's frothy Tongue Twister and 1982's Boomerang. Having failed to break commercially, the group then parted company with the label. The sensible Shoes soldiered on, releasing one European-only album, 1984's Silhouette, and smartly reissuing some of their back catalog on their own Black Vinyl Records.

On Stolen Wishes, Shoes demonstrate that their faith in themselves is well placed. First, the album sounds bright and fresh, more lively than any of their major-label releases. More important, Shoes are now making the most passionate music of their career – "Feel the Way That I Do," "She's Not the Same," "Love Is Like a Bullet" and many of the other twelve infectious songs on Stolen Wishes display a ballsy edge and irresistible force that has sometimes been lacking on earlier efforts.

Stolen Wishes is not merely some clever, critic-friendly piece of musical revivalism. It's something much rarer – a great, unpretentious rock & roll album that deserves to be heard and enjoyed by a mass audience. This band has worn well indeed; put Shoes on and feel the lift.

Stolen Wishes is available from Black Vinyl, 2269 Sheridan Road, Zion, Illinois 60099, (708) 746-3767. (RS 574)

DAVID WILD