Melbourne four-piece the Crayon Fields marry a surprise sunny disposition with an organic approach. There’s a frailty to opener “Choir of Tiny Boys” as a mass of voices meld together to create a Beach Boys-like effect, but the band’s debut Animal Bells is a playful, adventurous listen.

Sitting nicely alongside fellow oddballs Architecture in Helsinki, Animal Bells is in truth much more simple than that band’s kitchen-sink approach, with the likes of the keyboard that weaves its way through “Would It Be So Strange” being the Crayon Fields’ concession to adding layers extra instrumentation.

But the real key to the Crayon Fields is the harmonies that the band use throughout this debut album. The chiming “Back, Front, Side, Low, High” does it ever so well, with Byrds-like guitar prettiness thrown in for good measure. “Helicopters” has a touch of edge to it, and eschews the stacked vox and strong melodies in favour of a rhythm approach.

The Crayon Fields aren’t doing anything all that brilliantly new, but what they do they do so very, very well. None of the songs last for very long at all, but they don’t need to – they’re so well constructed that they exist in a vacuum all their own. Only the closing “Drains” lasts over 3:40, and Animal Bells is the sort of album that whips by, demanding immediate replay.