The Right Stuff

File under: I Love You, Baby, But I Hate Your Friends. You can easily trace the existence of The Boy Least Likely To back to the deepest roots of the past six years. Choose your most hateful and overhyped band from the likes of Arcade Fire, Neutral Milk Hotel, Badly Drawn Boy or The Lilys. Don't forget the disc graphics from The Boy's The Best Party Ever, either: It's done up like a children's book, so let's add in plenty of other fey pop acts with pretentious literary allusions.

But go further down the primrose path, and the duo of The Boy Least Likely To takes you to better things. Never mind that we'll have to ignore a whole other heritage of jangly '80s Scottish pop bands, Pete Hobbs and Jof Owen are too dedicated to let their geekiness end there. Ultimately, The Boy Least Likely To delves deep into Sunshine Pop, Ray Conniff and twangy country and western.

They also rip-off plenty of pop geniuses of determined mainstream eccentricity; Lee Hazlewood isn't too obscure, but you can't go wrong with invoking Brian Wilson. The Boy Least Likely To have to add a banjo to Hobbs' other elaborate instrumentation, and that's where The Best Party Ever becomes-if not the best album, so far, of this year-a solid album that's derivative of all the right things.

The Boy Least Likely To isn't the first band to ever be all about the influences. Hobbs and Owen, however, have absorbed enough soul and psych to make for their own melodic greatness. They also put their own stamp on invoking Mr. Death amongst moments of rich beauty and even avoid overdosing on either mopiness or wistfulness. Instead, the duo succeeds in being well rounded amongst their highs and lows.

A determined wit also suggests these English lads are more into sardonic American comics than, say, Eddie Izzard. That's a relief. So is the fact that they keep from becoming cloying when crooning a tune like "Please Be Gentle With Me"-which is made even more tolerable by titles like "Sleeping With A Gun Under My Pillow." The Best Party Ever is ultimately one of the most unexpectedly swell debuts of recent times. Actually, they debuted with a 7" single, but you probably already guessed that.

March 10. R&R, 416 W. 14th St. (betw. 9th Ave. & Washington St.), 212-675-2220, 8:30, $10.

March 14-15 with James Blunt. Webster Hall, 125 E. 11th St. (betw. 3rd & 4th Aves.), 8, $25/$30.