by Michael Gallucci

On their second album, this faceless alternapop trio tosses together more harmless songs that don't have much to say yet manages to lumber along anyway. The mannered climb toward the tunes' peaks isn't nearly as labored here as it was on their snooze-worthy debut, but leader John Wozniak, given more creative freedom, fashions Shapeshifter as a trip through sonic fields of wonder; there's yodeling, underwater echo, and even epic storytelling, but it all blends into a mush of fuzzy guitars and detached vocals by the end. And Wozniak's post-grunge guitar chops and melodramatic musings --"I've got some kind of disease/And there are no remedies" he sings all Cobain-like on the opening "It's Saturday" -- seem a bit old-fashioned by late-'90s standards.