Letters To Cleo is a quintet from Boston that plays the Pixies variant of power-pop, enhanced by a double-guitar assault to the senses. A sweet female vocalist (Kay Hanley) helps keep the (otherwise too eclectic) music focused, Cardigans-like. Aurora Gory Alice (CherryDisc, 1993) features the hit single Here And Now but also a broad range of cliches of alternative rock, from Nirvana to Throwing Muses. Get On With It and Rim Shak are among the most pleasant offenders.

Wholesale Meats And Fish (CherryDisc, 1995) is a louder, noisier work that offers three strong songs (Fast Way, Awake and Little Rosa) and one intriguing experiment (Acid Jed) but overall fails to deliver what the debut album promised.

Horns and keyboards make Go (Revolution, 1997) even more derivative of modern rock, even if the faster and louder numbers (I Got Time, Go) offer a weird fusion of heavy metal and soft rock.