Rap & roll exploded five years ago, long enough to spawn a second generation, mongrelized by even more influences and hence more sophisticated. Beck, Bobby Sichran and G. Love and Special Sauce have already staked out this territory, but Soul Coughing – with reference points like the O'Jays' "For the Love of Money," William Burroughs records, Benny Goodman's "Sing, Sing, Sing," 1991's landmar...

Soul Coughing just may be rap rock's great white hope – emphasis on the maybe. El Oso, the New York quartet's third album, finds it losing the tug of war between avant-garde adventurousness and alt-rock accessibility, Despite the bouncy guitar sproing! of the single "Circles," which should appeal to Dave Matthews fans, El Oso returns to the band's more out-there leanings. It's a tack that...