Dr. Dog These Days

There's something undeniably satisfying about Dr. Dog's music. Organically lo-fi, the Pennsylvania collective's unique blend of bouncy existentialism draws on a wide range of classic rock that makes them instantly familiar.

Planking pianos, electrifying guitars, and floating harmonies -- the result is part psychedelia, part folk, funk, soul, and jazz. On their sixth studio album Be The Void, Dr. Dog embraces their influences, but may have ignored their own pedigree.

The album starts by wiping the slate clean, begging the question "What does it take to be lonely?/Nothing at all" on "Lonesome." The first half of the album, the angstily aging "These Days," breezy "How Long Must I Wait?" and shape shifting "Get Away," harken back, thankfully, to the bands looser earlier work.

Unfortunately the second half is somewhat bogged down by production and extended segments, repeating successful hooks but not expanding on them. While past Dr. Dog tracks felt like songs within songs that couldn't be contained, some on this album felt slightly more two dimensional. Songs like "Warrior Man" and "Vampire" may translate better performed live but lingered on in recorded form.

Their style retains a fly on the wall recording quality, though as polished it doesn't erupt with the same kind of spontaneity. Rather than being punchy enough to feel clever, it seemed to showed a little too much behind the curtain.