When you have a band fronted by a pair of extremely talented brothers who happen to have a fixation with insanely infectious Beatles melodies and shimmering sixties pop, comparisons to Oasis have to come to mind. Add to that mix, the fact that their nasally inflected lead vocals have more than a passing similarity to one Gallagher brother and the comparisons simply can't be avoided.

So let's get it out of the way.

The Morning Stars are what Oasis should have become if they hadn't been swallowed into the bottomless dark pit of old mother Ego.

Now, let's set another thing straight. These brothers, Mars and Micheal Ivie, along with Donn Dixon on drums, come from Canada not England, and the three of them combine to create perfectly crafted shimmering pop songs, laced with a touch of underground attitude, a spice of shoe gazing polyrhythms and a splash of post-punk mood and texture. The end creation is a captivating, wholly engaging album of dreamy, jangling Britrock pop that still hides a darker underbelly.

In the end, the Ivie brothers mixture of their odd assortment of influences creates a sound far greater than the sum of it's individual parts. This is a glistening, timeless pop gem. And to top it all off, the boys want you to have it for free. Yes, that's right, free. Simply head over to last.fm and you'll find the whole album available as a free download. Now, we all love free music as much as the next guy, but we also know that if we want artists to keep creating we have to support them. So, pop on over to the Morning Stars page, download one or two tracks, and if you dig what these guys are laying down, pick up the album over at Amazon or CDbaby.

You never know, you just may have found your theme album for the summer.

Must [legally] download songs: Don't Waste Time, Wrong, All Coming Down, Heart For The Living, Steal My Love,