"Daydream, make sure it's good stuff." That is the opening line to Bachelorette's My Electric Family, and the album fulfills this imperative beautifully. Bachelorette is New Zealander Annabel Alpers, and My Electric Family is her second release (her first had limited distribution). Taking as its theme the potential estrangement and loneliness inherent in our "mating" with technology, My Electric Family pulls this off with the neat twist of Alpers' penning songs that not only describe such estrangement, but also the alluring pull, of the human-technology interface. Her theme is also strongly accentuated by the fact that the album, itself, was largely generated on computers. Further, to go along with the many acoustic guitars and Alpers' fine, unique voice, the album is full of synthesized sounds, noises, and electronic quirks. What can you say of an album that, in "Where You Begin," states, "Will this digital obsession ever end/You stay in your room/On your computer/Observing strangers/Ignoring those around you," when the song itself was surely created in just such an atmosphere. Well, one thing this reviewer can say is that it's brilliant. Opener "Instructions For Insomniacs" starts things off with a strumming acoustic guitar, gentle drumbeat, and Alpers' light-as-air voice. Looped flutes are then added, as is an angelic choir and layers of delicate guitars, until the gentle beginning ends with an almost psychedelic explosion. "The National Grid" follows with bass drum and hand claps providing an off-kilter beat that is married to a hazy, fifties-style "doo-wop" chorus. "Her Rotating Head" is a particular highlight, with fine pop hooks and a wistful melody underscoring Alpers' metaphor of the female side of a romance sometimes being akin to the actions of a robotic doll (e.g., "She's programmed to say/Objectify me/Degrade and defile me"). "Technology Boy" puts melodic Kraftwerk through a female-fronted blender, while "Donkey" has a whirling fairground, carousel-like feel accompanied by sixties-sounding twin guitars. Despite its technology-based underpinnings, the overall tone of My Electric Family is very warm and inviting, conjuring up a sort of "folktronica" wonderland based on aural snapshots of music ranging from the fifties up to the present day. Combined with her fine lyricism, Bachelorette has provided us with an album that is in equal measures unique, unusual, and excellent.