Vermont’s Happy Birthday are a quirky blend of sugar and salt; there’s an underlying sweetness to their abrasive blend of reverbed guitar squall and thorny vocal whine that is (mostly) enchanting. All three members are creative in other fields (writing, visual arts), so it’s no surprise their debut record should feel a bit like a brand-new box of crayons, minus the Forest Green and Apricot; Happy Birthday is colored more with Hot Magenta and Electric Yellow. “Cracked” and “Zit” stomp and howl like cavemen raised on Nuggets collections, surrounded by cotton-candied ballads like “Maxine” and “Fun,” and sharp-edged noise bursts like “Eyes Music” and “Pink Strawberry Shake.”  The trio may do best when they let singer/songwriter Kyle Thomas’s professed love for Top 40 shine through: “Girls FM” is breezy and hooky (mostly), and “Subliminal Message” is a syrup-and-vinegar blend of winsome vocals set to a faintly ‘70s pop melody. The core of the track is so sweet it may wander away in search of a Justin Bieber album to inhabit.