Aside from a limited-edition collection of cover tunes, it's been two years since the last proper Elf Power album, Creatures, and in that time several changes have gone down for the Athens combo, most notably the arrival of new members Eric Harris (Olivia Tremor Control) and Craig McQuiston (Glands). While the creative core of songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Andrew Rieger and keyboardist Laura Carter remains intact, there seems to have been a deliberate shift in focus. Replacing Elf Power's signature ragged-but-right lo-fi psychedelia is a more stylistically varied sound, and as so often happens in rock, branching out yields the proverbial good news and bad news.

Several songs, so excessively dipped in synth cheese they merit a Kraft Foods-ELP trademark, stir memories of bad acid trips and even worse prog from the dark side of the seventies. Rieger's accented vocals can be off-putting, too; when he lapses into sinusitis mode on the electronic-tinged pomp-rocker "The Cracks," he summons unpleasant memories of British goth-twits Placebo. Luckily the band redeems itself on tracks such as "Evil Eye" (a chugging Byrdsian reverie, "Drawing Flies" (T. Rex and Gary Glitter duke it out while the Zombies referee) and "Evil Eye" (a full-tilt gallop that'll have you white-knuckling the edge of your saddle with one hand and clutching your carrying case of Velvets and Clean albums with the other). Well, God did make CD players programmable for a reason, eh?

"Aside from a limited-edition collection of cover tunes, it's been two years since the last proper Elf Power album, Creatures, and in that time several changes have gone down for the Athens combo, most notably the arrival of new members Eric Harris (Olivia Tremor Control) and Craig McQuiston (Glands). While the creative core of songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Andrew Rieger and keyboardist Laura Carter remains intact, there seems to have been a deliberate shift in focus. Replacing Elf Power's signature ragged-but-right lo-fi psychedelia is a more stylistically varied sound, and as so often happens in rock, branching out yields the proverbial good news and bad news.

Several songs, so excessively dipped in synth cheese they merit a Kraft Foods-ELP trademark, stir memories of bad acid trips and even worse prog from the dark side of the seventies. Rieger's accented vocals can be off-putting, too; when he lapses into sinusitis mode on the electronic-tinged pomp-rocker ""The Cracks,"" he summons unpleasant memories of British goth-twits Placebo. Luckily the band redeems itself on tracks such as ""Evil Eye"" (a chugging Byrdsian reverie, ""Drawing Flies"" (T. Rex and Gary Glitter duke it out while the Zombies referee) and ""Evil Eye"" (a full-tilt gallop that'll have you white-knuckling the edge of your saddle with one hand and clutching your carrying case of Velvets and Clean albums with the other). Well, God did make CD players programmable for a reason, eh?

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