's use of standard instrumentation and explorations of musical forms outside the genre may have come a few years too late -- bands like and being only two of the many acts to excel at this in the mid-'90s. Still, is an excellent debut from a band whose Athens, GA, roots would imply a more approach to songwriting. Though most songs meander thoughtfully through tremolo-filled guitar passages tinted with soft-brushed cymbals, songs like go for the more complex, forward-churning tendencies of bands like . The open spaces on songs like suggest that these guys have listened to some of the more organic music like or , building textures instead of stringing along notes. Hardly a breakthrough, is more like a retrospective of all that was great about the last decade's without all the missteps that have made the genre such a cliche. ~ Daphne Carr