*** Aluminum Group

PEDALS

(Matador)

This Chicago group's second album isn't a note-for-note re-creation of the kind of swinging bachelor-pad muzak your parents may have cocktailed to in the '50s and '60s, but there's a suave, easy-listening quality to the Bacharachian horn charts and velvety female background harmonies (courtesy of Edith Frost and the Mekons' Sally Timms) that brings to mind that era. Handling lead vocal duties are a pair of smooth-crooning, fashionably dressed brothers -- John and Frank Navin -- whose sincere delivery suits deadpan lyrics like "The next time that I tattoo something on my arms and back, tell me if I'm wasting needles, ink, and arms and back" ("Lie Detector Test") to a tee. Producer Jim O'Rourke helps the brothers build upon the mix of fetching melodies and downy keyboards that dominated the Aluminum Group debut, Plano, adding everything from new-wave synths to plucking banjo when appropriate. Cameos by Sean O'Hagan of Stereolab/High Llamas, and Tortoise's Doug McCombs are nice indie-rock selling points. But the Navins have strong enough personalities -- equal parts Pet Shop Boys cool, lounge-pop swank, and bookish smarts -- that, even with all the familiar guests, Pedals remains their cocktail party.

-- Lydia Vanderloo