Illumination

There’s something incredibly brave about The Pastels’ 1997 masterpiece, Illumination. A collective playing near the limits of their abilities, with a strong, unyielding sense of aesthetics and a gift for unhurried melodicism, it’s full of twilight revelation and night-time visions. There are lovely pop songs here, like the singles “The Hits Hurt” and “Unfair Kind Of Fame,” but the overall mood is one of becalmed, gentle bliss — see the pirouetting flute and electronics that glimmer through “Cycle,” or the quietly exultant communitarian spirit of “Attic Plan.” A generous collection of songs, Illumination is complete, heavenly, a lamp-lit spirit guide for tender belonging.