The Cold War Kids' Behave Yourself EP marks the first new material from the band in the two years since their moderately-received second album, Loyalty to Loyalty. While these songs were mostly written and recorded during the sessions for Loyalty to Loyalty, The Cold War Kids show better consistency here than in any of their other releases.

While The Cold War Kids' blend of gospel, blues, and garage rock is certainly a very unique style, and the band excels at crafting shining examples of catchy tunes, their albums have been extremely uneven. Each of their albums have a handful wonderful, beautiful bluesy gospel pop songs with great hooks, but the rest of their material becomes pretty forgetful after a few listens.

Behave Yourself, however, maintains a great level of quality throughout each of its four songs and makes obvious that the band is becoming far more comfortable with their sound. The opener, "Audience of One," stands among the band's best songs, its only competition being "Hospital Beds" or "We Used to Vacation" from their debut, Robbers and Cowards. Nathan Willett's soulful crooning is the centerpiece of this song and is complimented by a very playful piano and handclaps. This song is one of the lighter Cold War Kids tracks, but still features the obtuse and cryptic lyrics they are known for, which creates a sort of eerie combination that still makes listeners want to sing along to.

"Coffee Spoon" and "Santa Ana Winds," the middle meat of the EP, seem to flow right into each other, creating the illusion of a single song. The only real way to tell they are two separate songs is to watch the tracks change. While this may sound like a bad thing, both of the songs are beautiful, ghastly, ballads that feature shimmering guitars and a very jazzy drum beat. "Santa Ana Winds," however, climaxes into a frenzied, yet tasteful finale with Willett mashing piano chords while howling, "you tore me up by my roots and fell silent again/my seeds have blown around but never land."

The EP's closer, "Sermons," is a re-recording of "Sermons vs the Gospel," a hidden track at the end of Robbers and Cowards. This re-interpretation of one of The Cold War Kids' more religious songs really benefits from higher-quality recording and more pronounced instrumentation, and is a clever way for the band to signal a return to their roots.

Behave Yourself is a solid release unquestionably, but there is nothing here that is going to win over new audiences. Fans of the band will be more than pleased with all of the songs here, but it comes across as just a small appetizer before their next full album.

Colours-Alive and Well

If you like what you hear when you walk into American Eagle or Aeropostale, then you will love the band Colours. This two man indie-rock band from Dallas, Texas just put out their EP Alive and Well, which consists of catchy choruses and lyrics that speak to the masses. The overall sound is upbeat and poppy.

Lead singer Rico, has little range and variation in his cool and almost whiny voice. He reminds me of Something Corporate's Andrew McMahon with less passion and range in his vocals. Rico's lyrics consist mostly of love and relationships and don't stray too far from either of those two themes.

The majority of the instrumentals are handled by Phil the only other band member, and they are very basic, but well mixed, and professionally produced. Each song has a nice flow that makes the music easy to listen to.

This seems to be a growing trend where even indie-rock bands are losing their raw connections to the elements of music, and heading straight for the clean sounds of the studio. The album lacks any standout bass lines, and there are no guitar solos. I would recommend this album to those who are looking for easy listening rather than to be dazzled or even slightly impressed by tight technique although it is by no means sloppy.

The album grows dull after one listen. This is due greatly to the overall similarities that each song shows to the next. In my opinion the best song on the album is "Colorful" because the singer ventures slightly away from the normalcy of the album in his vocal melodies.

If I had to give this album a rating, it would be a 2.5 out of 5 stars and that's half way there, but not quite enough to impress avid music lovers.

By Dan Syckle and Pat Jones