Had it not been for this guy called Rick Miller--not the one in Southern Culture On The Skids, but a Chapel Hill guitarist/rock critic--helping me out on my very first professional writing gig back in 1979, I might never have wound up in your present-day hands. (So blame him.) Like the folks in that Harry Chapin song, we went our ways and lost touch. Then I spotted him years later in the record bins under his real name, Parthenon Huxley. Now he fronts a band in Los Angeles, a trio called P. Hux. Does the world need another pop band cut from Lennon/ McCartney silk? One spin'll convince you it does--one and a half will make you trade in your World Party and Crowded House CDs. The record starts out with a peck on the cheek to Fab Four fans, "One More Day In The Life," which tumbles straight into a brash tambourine-'n'-maracas number titled "Simple Things." Despite their hummable melodies and singalong choruses, Deluxe's songs aren't temporary confections designed to melt in the sun. There are loads of instrumental and mixing subtleties, plus Huxley's quarter-pounder riffs, and each track is a living, breathing study in classicism (not unlike Todd Rundgren's brilliant early work).

And one would expect no less from Huxley, a student of the masters. Of course, now the student has become a master himself.

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