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If Freddie Mercury had survived to apply his polymorphously perverse hand at grunge, the result might sound like Fossil. The Manhattan quartet’s eponymous debut includes arch vocals that skip into the falsettosphere. The band’s stunning melodies yank on the heart to the accompaniment of instrumentation that ranges from subdued to slamming. Guitarist/ songwriter Bob O’Gureck, who penned the lyrics to the disc’s 14 tracks, sings with deep urgency and barely contained joy. His bandmates provide arrangements that roar and clank like midnight in a foundry on such songs as “Moon” and “Rebellion.” On the group’s rockers, the industrial base serves to grind away overly sweet edges, sharpening the delivery but preserving an essential warmth. Randy Staley’s lead guitar work, especially in the lower registers, swaggers amiably but does not overpower. And when O’Gureck swings in from left field with an unabashedly romantic display of waltzy schmaltz like “Josephine Baker” (“I’m in love with Josephine Baker/There’s a problem she’s 20 years dead/It’s a problem that I in the prime of my life cannot love someone living instead”) the other Fossils swing right with him, damping their volume so that the singer’s ardor floats high and lonesome and loopy all by itself.