The latest album by England's High Llamas – finally released here – is guaranteed to elicit open-mouthed astonishment from Brian Wilson fans who thought they had heard every Smile bootleg ever made. Lead Llama Sean O'Hagan (whose '80s band Microdisney sounded nothing like this) has created the strangest tribute album this side of Beatlemania.

A gorgeous slab of symphonic pop lasting 77 minutes and featuring 29 tracks – plus a six-track bonus CD – Hawaii is awash with texture: a banjo here, a repetitive organ chord there, dryly recorded vocal choruses fading in and out, and, only occasionally, full songs. Most of those – such as "Nomads" and "The Hot Revivalist" – are pleasant enough, but what ultimately catches the ear are O'Hagan's arrangements; as with Wilson's before him, it is the unexpected sound – the horn blasts, the sudden percussive snap – that gives O'Hagan's music its life. Still, there is a major and obvious difference: Brian Wilson knew how to write pop singles, and there isn't one track on Hawaii that is, or would have ever been, a hit record. The album is ear candy – divinely played, extremely pleasant going down – but, that said, oddly forgettable.

"Let's rebuild the past/'Cause the future won't last," O'Hagan sings in "The Hot Revivalist," and that sentiment is as integral a part of Hawaii as the recurring melodies populating it. It's easy to fall in love with the High Llamas' music, easy to marvel at the craft behind its design – but in the end, it's difficult to believe the music is offering us anything new or of lasting value. Is it coincidence that the Beach Boys song most consistently evoked by Hawaii is the one called "Passing By"? God only knows. (RS 769)

DAVE DIMARTINO