For its woodsy, leafy cover, its crackling guitars and squooshy synths, I nominate Like a Fox for the Jersey Pines Album of 2006 Award. The eponymous debut disc from N.J.'s dream pop prince Jay Laughlin and his sidekick Dave Grubb certainly continues the saga of their previous band, Lenola, one of the tri-state area's most regal pop ensembles throughout the '90s. But Fox is breezier and bloopier than the noisy, nerve-rattling Lenola — and more earthen. Imagine a way-not-gay Pet Shop Boys with razoring guitar moves, puckering sequencers and swooshing keyboards. That's Like a Fox. And though Laughlin sounds a little like a flatly Americanized Pet Shop Boy, his lyrics — on the nicely nightmarish "Nobody Knows You," for instance — are more smartly unsnarky, richly imagistic and emotionally vivid than anything Neil Tennant's hit upon since "Rent."