The Feelies prove how much can be achieved with a few guitars and a healthy Velvet Underground fixation. Since their spectacular 1980 debut, Crazy Rhythms, they have continuously extended the limits of avant-rock – creating darkly hypnotic records without ever succumbing to pretension.

The group's fourth release carries this trend forward. The three-chord propulsion of the opening track, "Waiting," is pure adrenalin, while chief Feelie Glenn Mercer's guitar glides in and out of the frantic mix, buzzing like a faraway car coming toward you on a winding country road. The short bursts of frenetic energy on the next two tracks, "Time for a Witness" and "Sooner or Later," conjure up Crazy Rhythms, but most of the album mines the ground of the band's last two outings, The Good Earth and Only Life. Those two records, made back-to-back after the band's six-year disappearing act, burned off the perpetual nervousness of the first record – unveiling a new lineup and a much more fluid, streamlined sound.

This time around, however, the Feelies have loosened up a bit, adding a tougher, more muscular thrust to the rhythm section – which isn't to say that the group's penchant for pop whimsy has subsided. The Feelies play amphetamine-laced folk: simple, bouncy, guitar-driven nuggets played at ninety miles an hour, all eased forward with lolling, haunting harmonies. On "Doin' It Again," Mercer – whose vocals roam the entire range between Bob Dylan and Lou Reed – actually tries his hand at singing. And while his crooning might sound like he's experiencing the second coming of puberty, the rest of the band locks into an unbreakable groove that never lets him fall.

The album's strongest tracks, in fact, showcase the mesmerizing power of this groove. The evocative, beautiful "For Now" pulses with trance-inducing regularity, and the blues-addled churning of "Decide" qualifies it as the best song the Velvet Underground never made. Once again, the Feelies have demonstrated how simplicity can speak with potency and grace. (RS 601)

CHRIS MUNDY