Bettie Serveert's second album, Lamprey, begins with a song that encompasses nearly all of the band's strengths and weaknesses. "Keep Sake" starts as if singer Carol van Dijk has relegated the rest of the group to being her backing band, as she wraps her coyest vocals around self-referential lyrics. But then the bass and drums kick in with an urgency straight out of the Crazy Horse songbook, propelled by Peter Visser's spare, repetitive guitar leads. Once that happens, Van Dijk's voice rises up, sometimes on the verge of shrieking, other times dropping into a huskiness that sounds like Chrissie Hynde's after a carton of cigarettes and a case of whiskey.

By illustrating the extremes between which Bettie Serveert swing, "Keep Sake" reveals the band's tendencies toward schoolgirl-diary lyrics and overwrought instrumental rave-ups. These tendencies are minimized when they meet somewhere in the middle, as they do on Lamprey's second track, "Ray Ray Rain." Between the song's catchy chorus and Van Dijk's cute looks, Matador's most accessible (dare we say mainstream) act is one slick video away from semistardom.

Lamprey's nine other songs all cover pretty much the same terrain. The string arrangement on "D.Feathers" carries the band's inclination toward the grandiose to new heights, while "Something So Wild" displays Van Dijk's breathy vocals at their best with a tastefully low-fi accompaniment. "Cybor* D" and "Totally Freaked Out" come closest to the best rockers on Palomine, the band's debut. In fact, the only notable difference between Bettie Serveert's two LPs is their decision to name this one for a parasitic, bloodsucking, eellike fish.

Bettie Serveert continue to play passionate music that rocks out. Aiming as high as they do, they occasionally miss. But the band's successes are particularly rewarding, as Lamprey convincingly demonstrates. (RS 702)

ERIC FLAUM