Eleni Mandell has released several fine, literate records full of cocktail-lounge flourishes. But on Artificial Fire, the L.A. singer boosts the gain on her guitar amp. This is a rock album, or the NPR-pop version of one — the hyped-up tempos (and romantic frustrations) in "Cracked" and "Little Foot" hold echoes of early Elvis Costello. The band is excellent, but Mandell's melodies sit uncomfortably amid the burly arrangements, and her lyrics, inflated to match the broad-shouldered music, lapse into poetastery. "God Is Love" is a string of ashram beatitudes: "Music from today/Music from our hearts/Coincidence and fate," Mandell intones. You miss the small songs about bad boyfriends.