The Chills began the 1990s with one of their strongest efforts yet with the New Zealand-chart topping Submarine Bells, a remarkably beautiful album that hasn’t lost any of its entrancing power as a sweet/sad example of that country’s rock and roll scene at its best. Martin Phillipps sounds great out of the gate on the wish-it-into-existence “Heavenly Pop Hit,” backing vocals and soaring melody saying it all, and similarly remarkable highlights occur through with “Part Past Part Fiction,” “Effloresce and Deliquesce” and the concluding title track.

– Ned Raggett