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**1/2 Silver Scooter

THE BLUE LAW

(Peek-A-Boo)

On their rst two albums, Austin’s Silver Scooter made passable indie pop of no greater import than, oh, Translator. But last year, on their “Goodbye” single, they covered New Order’s techno-folk classic “Run,” and that cast the band in a whole new light. Indeed, the best of The Blue Law delivers all the rushing ebullience of New Order, minus the disco beats, and without Bernard Sumner’s obsessive need to build walls of irony around his yearnings.

In its way, it’s still quite danceable. The bass, straining beautifully against the high frets in that ne Peter Hook tradition, is more melodic than the guitars, which are all rhythm. And the drums do a commendable job of emulating a drum machine. Up top, everything is catchy, sunny, and, above all, easy. And why shouldn’t it be? Youth culture is in a much less vexed position today than in New Order’s ’80s heyday, when irony , cynicism, and disco were used to throw off the last vestiges of ’60’s counterÚulture. Here guitarist Scott Garred sings, “I know I’m not cynical/I left that all by the wayside,” calmly enjoying his zeitgeist. Even when he rear-ends an ex’s car in “Terrorism Lover,” he sounds perfectly at ease.

— Kevin John