The Lovetones: Axiom

The Lovetones play the same song over and over on their third album, Axiom, but at least it's a really good song: a lushly melodic, midtempo, slow-building rocker that swells to the heavens on a cloud of guitars and strings. Songwriter Matt Tow did time in one of the numerous incarnations of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, though his touchstones are more late '90s than late '60s, with epic balladeers The Verve and Oasis creating a map for The Lovetones' ultimately monotonous quest for spaced-out transcendence. Tow is better when he focuses on down-to-earth pleasures: The wistful rocker "Wintertime In Hollywood" and the charming pop of "A Simple Song" go twice as far on half the gas.