Luna: Pup Tent

The unashamed Velvet Underground fans in Luna have made some darned good background pop in their day; they might not have any one song that stands out as a masterpiece, but you could have their stuff playing at any given time and find something to like. Luna's first three albums have featured deft musicianship, the clever lyrics of ex-Galaxie 500 frontman Dean Wareham, and were clean examples of pleasant, intelligent popcraft. Pup Tent, by comparison, shows signs of a band that's trying too hard. The sound has been "punched up" by outside producer Pat McCarthy, and the brittle edginess he adds to these 10 songs is somewhat at odds with Luna's characteristic tone of nervous relaxation. Lyrically, Wareham seems to have fallen into the referential trap; when he urges listeners not to waste their time learning Klingon, it's almost too clever by half. Pup Tent isn't a great Luna album, but it's not awful: The first song, "IHOP," is one of its best ever. Still, for a band that made a reputation by playing the world's best lyrical background music, that's faint praise.