Beulah's last album, 1997's Handsome Western States, was a brief, Breeders-meet-Apples in stereo, fun little CD. It asked, and claimed, little, and I still like hearing it once in a while. On this one, Beulah grows ambition, orchestrating many songs with strings, flute, horns, and the more exotic sarangi and tabla. "Calm Go the Wild Seas" blends its disparate textures into a fascinating and colorful "Surf's Up"-style pocket symphony. By contrast, "The Aristocratic Swells" fits a riff suited to early Pretty Things with maracas and hammering piano. Sometimes, though, songs seem a bit overwhelmed by the orchestration - they seem unable to stand up against the instruments, and melt into indistinction too soon after being heard. That orchestration occasionally seems reactive rather than something the music demands: it follows Mercury Rev, High Llamas, and the marching-band horns heard in Neutral Milk Hotel rather than staking out its own path. The best moments here make Beulah's ambitions worthwhile, while others give less justification for them.

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