Bowery Electric is not a trend-setting band. They began playing My Bloody Valentine-style drone rock a few years after the style had reached its peak, and they've since been moving steadily in a noir-ish trip-hop direction, territory Portishead covered pretty thoroughly on their last two records. There's nothing wrong with working within a tradition-- hell, it's worked for thousands of punk bands-- and not every album needs to define a genre. Bowery Electric's saving grace on their first two albums was that while they failed to innovate, they at least gave a fresh look to shoegazer techniques, and they could conjure thick, absorbing guitar buzzes with the best of them. Their talent for creating unique and engaging sounds in the studio more than made up for any songwriting deficiencies, and the flawless execution made their records memorable.

Lushlife, however, is not of a similar caliber. This album largely abandons the band's seemingly limitless way with the effects pedal in lieu of a more sample-driven, electronic approach. It's an uncanny imitation of four-year-old British trip-hop, without the melodies or the feeling. In this case, the one-note presentation proves far too familiar to be assessed on its own merits. The opening track, "Floating World," is thick with strings, keyboard washes and pathetic turntable scratching that wants desperately to sound hip. An atmosphere is established and maintained with what proves to be a deadly consistency. Those same strings (and nearly same monotone melody) pop up through the album with diminishing returns, and the songs just don't vary enough to make any kind of impression.

Much has already been made about the stale beats on Lushlife. "Saved" has the "funky drummer" riff front and center, and most of the other loops sound as though you heard them in a since-abandoned coffeehouse. I've even heard at least one person claim that Lushlife is some kind of album-length commentary on the short shelf life of the drum loop. But whatever the band's intention, it's not so much the dated nature of the drum sounds that holds the songs back; it's that none of the grooves develop or change in any way. Each track begins with a bland, moody intro, then the beats enter and repeat a single bar pattern without variation until the song fades out. Was it too much to ask to program some fills? Or a different take on the rhythm during the bridges?

Despite all my complaining, there are some things on Lushlife to recommend. Though every track offers the same mood (like cruising through Soho in a taxicab on Valium after an uneventful evening), that mood is always well executed. And the layered hard disk recording is impressive, subtly weaving together some interesting sonic elements. Though the guitars are downplayed, Bowery Electric still know how to wring texture out of the studio, and fans of pure sound will certainly find something of interest. People hoping for something new, on the other hand, will have to look elsewhere.

-Mark Richard-San