The Berlin-based duo of Daniel Schaub and Par Lammers has always drawn comparisons to The Pet Shop Boys, Trembling Blue Stars, and even Nik Kershaw and Tears for Fears, due to the somber quality of its best work. Where Jack Beauregard's earlier records had either a lower-fi sound or more emphasis on the songs' acoustic basis, Irrational proudly uses synths and sequencers that make each song sound like a ride down the Autobahn in a sleekly designed sports car. The playfulness is best heard on the fidgety and ebullient "The Harbour," where the ghosts that haunt the heavier tracks are given the slip. For that sense of '80s nostalgia, "Cologne," "Miss Sunset," and "Houston" fill the room with textures that will remind '80s teens of the era's heartbreak and angst while giving new-millennium kids a fuller picture of what synths can do for the soul. (A lesson, say, that James Chapman of Northampton, England's Maps has clearly learned and uses in new contexts, among those of the new breed.)