It's an old routine. A band-- say, U2-- changes and everybody starts pissing and moaning about how they were better before the makeover. Let me just say, "Waah!" Put yourself in their shoes and see if you'd want to keep writing the same song over and over again. On the other hand, some bands are so precise at what they do that even the slightest change seems like a giant leap forward. A couple extra pings here, a beefier riff there, and suddenly, you've got Slain by Yatsura.

The new territory covered on the Scottish group's second full-length album plays out like a kid who rides his bike beyond his home street for the first time: it may be a whole new world to him, but it's far from undiscovered country. Lead singer/ songwriter Graham Kemp adopts the same balance of guitar quirkiness (a la Pavement) and somber pop vocalizing (a la the Vaselines) that's the indie wave of the moment in Scotland (for more examples, try Bis or the Delgados). The heavy riffage of "Flaming Skull" matches the vocal attitude of lyrics like "Why don't you shut up/ We like this fucked up" and "You're so apathetic/ Please kill me now."

Yet for all the predictable pubescent power pop, there are moments when it's obvious that Kemp has more than just a couple of Sonic Youth and Pixies in his collection. "Slain by Elf" leads in with a guitar part that's every bit as assertive as a Frank Black lick, but also occasionally becomes reminiscent of Thurston Moore's trebly chimes.

Slain by Yatsura doesn't go where no band has gone before, but sometimes you don't feel like pedaling into the brave new world. Sometimes it's enough to go in the basement, put on the headphones and act like you know.

-Shan Fowler