Dieselhed's fourth album in as many years opens auspiciously enough: the finger- picking and muted horn of "Tying Flies" recalls not the host of alt-country offerings littering the used CD racks, but rather the hushed folk-punk of the Velvet Underground's 1969 eponymous classic. Although the rest of Elephant Rest Home doesn't quite live up to that high standard, what follows is a collection of tears- in- your- beers country ballads as quaint and quirky as stuff out of the Arcata, California scene.

Against a musical canvas short on "alt" and long on "country," Dieselhed paints twisted portraits that walk the shores, but never quite fall into the lake, of trailer park cliché. As the title suggests, "Trucker's Alibi," a plodding waltz apologizing for a broken heart, comes the closest to drowning, but for the most part, the band saves themselves with gems of ingenuity. The lonesome drinkin' song "Cold Duck" contains the surprise confession, "I'm sorry for drawing mustaches in your porn mags," while the sardonic "Life After Eureka" observes local kids doing donuts in a parking lot before being busted for a bag of pot. The Band- like romp "Futon Song," the album's most compelling piece, celebrates ill- mannered houseguests. "Lap Dance," on the other hand, tells the predictable tale of wages lost to a dancer who "looked like an hourglass with the sand stuck in the top."

The album's ultimate success lies in the interplay of the music's slow- burning country swagger and the band's ever- present sense of humor. Even its closer, "Corrine," lamenting the plight of an alcoholic woman, never quite looks itself in the eyes, advising the title character that she has "the world by the balls."

Sadly, this formula is also the band's undoing. While creating an album full of compelling and unique tales, the band's sense of irony is nearly lost in repetitively similar musical treatments. As a result, Elephant Rest Home never quite realizes the imagination at which it hints.

-Neil Lieberman