LIKE their grave-digging fellow Swedes The Wannadies, The Concretes keep their feet on the ground in day jobs.

Guitarist Maria Eriksson is a care visitor; trumpeter Ulrik Karlsson, a design engineer, whose latest gig is to install Stockholm's congestion charge system; and singer Victoria Bergsman is a chef. No wonder she sounds so somnambulant, in the woozy vein of Nico, the Cowboy Junkies' Margo Timmins and Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval.

Lyricist Victoria leads this eccentric, intoxicating eight-piece in their moonlit hobby, in which they do it all, not least graphic artist/drummer Lisa Milberg designing sleeves and making animated videos.

Do not be thrown off the scent by song titles You Can't Hurry Love and Diana Ross: the Concretes mix wispy folk with Phil Spector symphonic pop while approximating the melodic melancholia and arthouse weirdness of The Velvet Underground's All Tomorrow's Parties.

Eight years in gestation, this debut album has been selling out on import since last year, and with its proper release this month, the day jobs may well have to take a back seat.

Updated: 08:30 Thursday, July 01, 2004