One way or another, the 1980s revival now seems to have lasted considerably longer than the decade itself. For some of us who came of age in the Eighties, the fortnightly rehabilitations of electropop and legwarmers tend to provoke nightmarish flashbacks, rather than waves of Day-Glo nostalgia.

Occasionally, though, a band come along whose Eighties fetish is more stimulating. This is the case with The Week That Was, a new project from Peter Brewis. Until recently, Brewis figured with his brother David in an awkward, brainy indie group called Field Music, who counted more music critics than real people as fans.

Now the brothers have amicably become solo artists, and Peter appears to have grown up into a sort of Sunderland Peter Gabriel. The eponymous debut album of The Week That Was takes the agitated art-pop of XTC as a starting point, then affords it the sort of melodramatic production once favoured by Kate Bush circa Hounds of Love.

For indie-rock fans of a certain age, the vast and booming drums that open Learn to Learn prove something of an aesthetic challenge. Is it really OK to like a hip little leftfield record in 2008 that sounds as if Phil Collins is playing drums on it? The answer, as you've probably guessed, is yes. Brewis crams a lot into these 32 minutes. The Week That Was is purportedly a concept album inspired by Paul Auster's novels, and by how Brewis tried to make sense of the world in his first week without a television. But it can be tricky to follow these narrative strands when there are so many musical fireworks: the chiming It's All Gone Quiet, or the baroque pop of The Airport Line.

It's excitingly complex stuff, and besides all the Eighties references, there are also echoes of the early albums by that eggheads' egghead, Brian Eno. For Brewis has synthesised a similarly brave music that is both progressive and humane, that takes melodic and sonic risks - those drums! - but still ends up as vibrant modern pop. Along with kindred young spirits such as Brooklyn's Yeasayer and the Lake District's Wild Beasts, Brewis could yet achieve the unthinkable - and, amazingly, give Eighties excess a good name.

(Memphis Industries, TMS £9.99, call 0845 6026328)

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