Rocket open their debut album with a gorgeous little magic trick, spending the first half-minute of The Choice in reverse orbit with backwards guitars and soft voices in luminous harmony before a 6/8 drum pattern snaps the song into focus. This is indie rock, but bent and stretched by unusually ambitious melodic thinking with a clear Brian Wilson lineage in the way these vocal lines are written and layered running the whole way through the album.

A series of slow-motion emotional wideshots, R is for Rocket is full of alt-rock balladry delivered with grandeur. Tracks like Act Like Your Title and Crossing Fingers move with a big, aching post-grunge sway with drums that feel half-asleep and heavy-hearted, and tender vocal performances. The songs take their time, letting the melodies breathe and everything is crafted for the listener to sit and contemplate feelings rather than sprinting through their songs. Another Second Chance fully tips into classic teenage-movie territory with a rush of confusion, yearning and wide-eyed hope. Pretending bucks the tempo with a more head-down, scrappy energy that leans into Nirvana fuzz while still keeping those warm harmonies. Crazy is a woozy little carousel of bends and glides, pulling heavily from My Bloody Valentine. The boldest swing of all is Number One Fan, Rocket’s full leap into Pet Sounds territory. With a descending organ line, tremolo-picked guitars washed in reverb, and harmonies stacked sky-high the song works only because the band is so completely committed to their Brian Wilson refracted aspirations. The closer R is for Rocket is another triumph, with a long, slow-building finale that gradually gathers itself into a widescreen, arms-open climax. The band jam on a repeated guitar figure that feels like a held breath, with each instrument nudging the others toward bigger versions of the same riffs. A soaring end credits song, it shows just how confidently the band can scale up when they want to. A stirring and big-hearted debut record with giant lungs.