Melancholy is the primary fuel source of indie rock, the emotional petroleum that drives the creative engine of a thousand guitar-wielding Droopy Dans and Dianes. To extend the metaphor, the most oil-rich region of the world is undoubtedly the United Kingdom, with Scotland serving as the Saudi Arabia crown jewel of resource surplus. I've never set foot in the land of kilts, bagpipes, and Groundskeeper Willie, but I've watched enough British Open television coverage to know that sun is an exceptionally rare commodity in this squall-laden territory. One can almost imagine Scotsmen harvesting bushels of gloom from beneath their many moors, a candidate in its own right for most depressing environmental feature.

So then, it's no surprise that rainy day rock royalty Belle & Sebastian hail from Scotland, as well as many lesser members of the genre's nobility: Arab Strap, Mogwai, Astrid, Eva, and so on. All of the above have sent representatives Parliament-style to back up Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody and his Reindeer Section project, first last year with the decidedly un-British-sounding Y'all Get Scared Now, Ya Hear! and again with the shiny new Son of Evil Reindeer. For the second album, Lightbody adds even more countrymen to his stable, signing up Cobain idol Eugene Kelly of the Vaselines, Idlewild's Roddy Woomble, and Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake. Guess we'll have to wait until album #3 to get the Bay City Rollers.

Unfortunately, it's a telling fact that, despite all these, um, famous names, the most compelling track on Son of Evil Reindeer is "Where I Fall," the one track stripped down to just Lightbody playing folksinger solitaire. It's not that the contributions aren't competent, but for such a varied cast of characters, the arrangements are surprisingly familiar. Only B&S; trumpetman Mick Cooke, who provides typically playful and catchy horn flourishes throughout, and vocal contributions from Kelly, Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat, and Eva's Jenny Reeve register as anything more than just session work from the carefully assembled starpower.

It's the vocal combinations Lightbody seems most concerned with, though, and the guest appearances provide a bit of a palate to choose from for the task of coloring in his song sketches. Most of the male mic-men (Lightbody, Blake, Woomble) bring similar shades of buttermilk croon to the table, but Moffat shines with a disinterested thick lilt over the minor chord piano swirls of "Whodunnit." Reeve's harmonies make already plush songs all the more pillowy, combining with Lightbody for a half-thawed Low sound on "Cartwheels" and "Budapest".

Still, there's very little on Son of Evil Reindeer to perk up the ears for anyone with more than a couple Jeepster products in their Case Logic. Its twelve songs all chart somewhere between the low point of dullish (drum machine snoozer "Who Told You?", the uncomfortably anthemic "You Are My Joy") and the high point of pleasant (frown-pop gem "Strike Me Down"). All too often Lightbody's compositions resort to textbook dynamics, most commonly of the soft-acoustic-pluck-gradually-changing-into-string-and-brass-laden-lush-peak sort (consult "Grand Parade" or "Cartwheels" for context).

All the same, at the Nick Drake Memorial Melancholy Pop World Championships, the Reindeer Section is a tough Dream Team to beat, with only the equally rain-soaked Northwest U.S. squad the Long Winters able to match up. And while Son of Evil Reindeer could be pretty easily interchanged with the day job projects of any single member participating, the fact remains that the Scottish do this kind of mostly cloudy ambience better than any other autonomous region, and a sampling of their near-best talent provides just about exactly what you would expect. Like a rainy Sunday, it's soothing in small quantities, but may induce restlessness over extended periods.

-Rob Mitchum, September 3rd, 2002