Never, Never Land

In England, UNKLE’s main man, James Lavelle, is a star. His 1998 debut album—a dark, heavy collaboration with DJ Shadow and other famous guests (Thom Yorke, Mike D)—was highly anticipated and then quickly dismissed as a vanity project. Six years later, his follow-up is still a group effort, but the faces are a little less famous and the album a little more cohesive. Never, Never Land is more song-driven than its predecessor: “What Are You to Me?” lays Richard File’s melancholy vocals over folksy acoustic guitar and cool beats; Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme brings his eerie voice and a sinister groove to the clubby “Safe in Mind”; “Reign” is a mini–Stone Roses reunion complete with the confident singing of Roses’ frontman Ian Brown and swirling Madchester beats. Most of these tunes tread pretty lightly, leaving more of a hazy impression than a stamp of authority.