The Housemartins were a pack of contradictions: Marxist Christians who played irresistibly cheerful ditties about shooting capitalists and hating farmers (because they’re… bourgeois, I guess?), and who regularly put down their instruments to sing close-harmony a cappella gospel songs. Their debut album is a celebration of tight popcraft and political provocation that lays out the map for their subsequent work: clean guitars, melodic bass lines, Paddy Heaton’s adenoidal but strangely attractive singing voice — and hooks, hooks, hooks. Highlights include “I Can’t Put My Finger on It” and the utterly brilliant “You Better Be Doubtful.”

– Rick Anderson