Those who admire Spitz’s signature jangle-pop sound but have never ventured into the Japanese rock stars’ early albums might initially be a bit baffled by the band’s third LP, Hoshinokakera. The record’s opening moments could easily convince a casual listener that they’ve thrown on a Soundgarden album by mistake. It was 1992, and grunge was right smack in the middle of changing the world. So it was only natural that a young band oriented halfway between plangent alt-rock and sparkling power pop might entertain a transient fascination with the growl ’n’ grind stampeding out of Seattle at the time. Hoshinokakera’s opening track and several of the album’s other tunes are framed by the kind of chomping riffs, dirty guitar tones, and walloping drums that were all the rage during the heyday of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, et al. But at the core of these tracks is the same pure-pop sensibility that has been at the heart of Spitz’s sound on every step of the group’s long journey. And no matter how gritty the guitar tones may get, nobody will ever mistake Masamune Kusano’s warm, crystal-clear croon for a hard-rock howl. The band readily ventures into other stylistic territories as well. “Bokuno Tenshi Mari,” for instance, moves along with a rollicking cowpunk feel that wouldn’t sound out of place on a vintage Social Distortion record. On tracks like “Apart” and “Naminori,” the four sink their teeth into the kind of chiming pop sounds for which they’d soon become much better known. Bassist Akihiro Tamura’s nimble, melodic bass lines really come to the fore on the former. Parts of Hoshinokakera, especially “Shiroi Honoo,” continue with the hard-charging alt-rock vibe established on Spitz’s debut album without tipping all the way over into grungy terrain. But even at this extremely transitional point in the band’s discography, its pop-perfect fingerprints remain eminently identifiable, pushing through often enough to prefigure the sonic shift and huge mainstream success that were soon to come.