Lots of bands write songs about girls. Some bands don't write anything but songs about girls. And then there are those select few bands that elevate writing songs about girls to a hallowed art form. If David Gedge (erstwhile Wedding Present leader and current Cinerama frontman) is the president of this club, then Darren Hayman, the cocky leader of Hefner, is surely the up- and- coming VP.

On Hefner's second album, the aptly- titled Fidelity Wars, Hayman and Co. run down the list of romantic entaglements. From the sad- sack self- pitying of "A Hymn to the Alcohol" to the brazen lust of "May God Protect Your Home;" from the sincere "why'd she leave me" lament of "We Were Meant to Be" to the unrepentant tale of cheating detailed in "Fat Kelly's Teeth," pretty much every angle on relationships is explored, sometimes in excrutiating detail.

However, while literally every song on The Fidelity Wars is directed in some way at various women, Hayman is imaginitive enough to keep the proceedings from getting boring. The bizarre Trojan War love fantasy "I Stole a Bride" is a great example: interspersing bits of story from the Trojan War and Hayman's own romantic travails, the song very nearly comes across as the delusional rantings of a madman, but actually manages to work (more or less).

The band has also added different instrumentation to the mix: for example, there are subtle DJ scratches on "I Love Only You," steel guitar licks grace "The Hymn for the Alcohol" and "The Weight of the Stars," and a theremin rears its squiggly head on "Don't Flake Out on Me." The new flourishes bring out the individual character of each song very nicely, and contribute to a varied, interesting album.

Musically, Hefner have expanded quite a bit from their debut release, Breaking God's Heart, while still maintaining a core sound, and even giving a few concessions to more standard Brit-pop fare. While the buzzing guitars featured in "The Hymn for the Cigarettes" would hardly seem out of the ordinary on a Blur song, they would have seemed quite out of place among the folky rave- ups that featured heavily on Breaking God's Heart. This is not to say that Hefner have gotten blander, only that on this release, they reveal that they're capable of maintaining their quirky edge while creeping a bit closer to the mainstream.

-Jeremy Schneyer