SOUND AND VISION IN MY SLEEP.

Last April, we featured the irresistible debut single from The Preatures, a Sydney-based quintet fronted by Isabella Manfredi who in less than a year have established themselves as not only one of Australia’s most exciting new acts, but the latest band to galvanize retro-rock tropes with the spiky, incandescent euphoria of today’s genre-warping pop (not at all unlike our homegirls in HAIM). “Better Than It Ever Could Be”is all primary-color captivation, a hook in every line of a melody that dazzles against the effortless swing of this bar-rock backdrop. Driven by an insistent, rollicking guitar-and-bass duel, the track crests so ecstatically through its choruses that it’s likely to surprise you when it’s drops into a slinky, hazy bridge, and then again when that bridge goes electric with a guitar solo for the ages. It’s a bold statement of intent as The Preatures make it known they’re here to stay in 2014 and beyond.