** Black Box Recorder

ENGLAND MADE ME

(Jetset)

Black Box Recorder's approach is so low-key that you might want to listen to England Made Me with a cup of coffee nearby. The latest project by the Auteurs' Luke Haines (who most recently masterminded 1996's creepy, funky Baader Meinhoff) is more often than not almost painfully understated, marked by a crisp, spacious sound but not a whole lot of inspiration. In multi-instrumentalist John Moore -- ex of Jesus and Mary Chain, Expressway, and Revolution 9 -- and cautious vocalist Sarah Nixley, Haines has found collaborators sympathetic to his Victorian paranoia but not quite sure what to do with it. England Made Me often seems made up entirely of treble sounds -- fragile, thin, and not terribly filling. Nixley -- sounding like a more on-key version of Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval -- doesn't quite convey the slyness that Haines brings to the lyrics, which means much of the album feels like a single entendre, a collection of statements that couldn't have any other meaning behind them. It's too bad, because in spots you can hear these tracks peer out from behind the disaffection draped upon them, and they're vintage Haines -- tuneful, compelling, and a little menacing. Black Box Recorder just can't get up the energy to meet the challenge of their own songs.

-- Ben Auburn