If you think the best songs on Revolver are "I'm Only Sleeping" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" and not "Eleanor Rigby;" if you seriously considered buying the Pet Sounds boxed set; if you've named your dog Reverb; The Olivia Tremor Control has made an album just for you.

The Athens, Ga., outfit has obviously spent a great deal of time frolicking in the pile of brightly colored leaves left in the woods by the likes of The Mamas and the Papas, early-period Pink Floyd, late-period Beatles, Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys and their ilk. And we should be grateful, for the result is a beaming, 27-track album whose Cheshire-Cat-grin can be seen floating Mylar-esque above a grounded U.S. indiepop scene.

Black Foliage — Volume 1 is a classic in every sense of the word. Olivia Tremor Control bypasses much of the history of psych-rock (most notably the dreamy, minimalist U.S. West Coast Paisley Underground scene of the mid '80s) and heads directly back to the days of Magical Mystery Tour and Smile. Don't be fooled, though; while much of Black Foliage will remind of songs like "Blue Jay Way" and "California Dreamin'," there's a lot of innovation at work here, too.

This comes in the form of the "animation" and "combination" pieces strewn throughout the album (you didn't think there were 27 actual songs here, did you?). What the band has done is taken the proper songs on the album, most notably the mid-album beauty, "Black Foliage (Itself)" and deconstruct them.

Then, the studio whiz kids (listening to this album on headphones gives you a brief idea of the countless studio hours this project must have involved) construct sonic collages out of the bits of the originals. The five animation pieces center around the bass line from "Black Foliage (Itself)." The combination pieces are shorter (usually only a few seconds) works derived from the animation pieces, and have typically been filtered through a number of different devices or re-combined with elements from still other songs.

Confused?

You should be. It's a confusing mess of an album in the best possible way, full of overdubs, backmasked tracks, weird analog synths with names like oscillator and theremin and countless other instances of studio trickery — and it's all pulled off quite seamlessly to boot. The Olivia Tremor Control somehow trick the listener into thinking they have an entire army of psychedelic gnomes at their disposal, ready to play the gorgeous, uplifting string section of "A Sleepy Company," or one of 10 (TEN!) acoustic guitar tracks on the catchy single "Hideaway." It must be a trip to see it all done live.

So what you have after all this is done is the best pop album to come out of Athens, Ga., since Rock Lobster. Though much of Black Foliage is bizarre and cacophonic, it's supposed to be that way, and the moments of sonic confusion make the pop gems — "Hideaway," "A Sleepy Company," "I Have Been Floated" and "The Sylvan Screen," to name a few — all the more memorable when they do emerge.

Who would have thought that one of the freshest-sounding albums of the '90s would be created by hearkening back to the late '60s? It's analog synths. It's string sections. It's warm, fuzzy guitar distortion washing over your eardrums. It's countless guest appearances by U.S. indie luminaries. It's catchy vocal harmonizing in the purest tradition of vocal harmonizing. It's perfect pop, and you need it now.

Do your ears a favor: Buy yourself a copy of this album, a portable CD player, a good pair of headphones and about a million batteries. Lather your brain in the warm, psychedelic glow of Black Foliage — Volume 1, and spend your extra time praying for a Volume 2.