Schizophonic!

There's not much to distinguish Combustible Edison's second album from their debut. It's another menu of cocktail-nation pop, both vocal and instrumental, with nods to exotica, '60s European soundtracks, bossa nova, the goofy kinds of sounds heard on early stereo demonstration records, and such. Because the genres they're aping were so superficial to begin with, there's not much point in dismissing this as revivalism. It's no more or less authentic than the original records of the '50s and '60s, so fans of these forms are about as well off with Combustible Edison as the vintage stuff. It's not wholly a re-creation, though; there's some melancholia and weariness to the torch vocal-influenced numbers in particular, which betrays an ironic, modernist bent absent from first-generation cocktail/lounge. — Richie Unterberger.