– but never all at once, so clearly. Love and Rockets seem to let each note hang in the air just for an instant before moving on, and the resulting songs definitely linger. It's a shame more of their words aren't worth remembering.

But if you can suspend judgment long enough to get past titles like "Yin and Yang the Flower Pot Man," you'll be swept up in a very modern sound: disciplined psychedelia. Each song follows a sort of illogical progression; they're unpredictable but cohesive. The melody of "It Could Be Sunshine" begins as a whiny sax riff, which by the song's abrupt ending becomes twisted into a spiky guitar phrase. "Kundalini Express" chugs along like a heavy-metal dance track with a shockingly gorgeous Beatlesque detour. "Love Me" and "All in My Mind" are both pretty yet intensely weird – the Hollies on ecstasy. But by repeating the latter song in a different but no better version on side two and including another take on "Ball of Confusion," the same Temptations song they covered on their first album (Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven), Love and rockets make themselves appear lazy. A less gifted band could be forgiven for such sloth, or for the muddled thinking behind "An American Dream," but a group that can articulate sophisticated musical ideas this succinctly is capable of much more. In the end, Express is a bit frustrating because it delivers the goods while suggesting something greater. Fulfillment may well be next, but for now Love and Rockets' promise will certainly suffice. (RS 495)

MARK COLEMAN