**1/2 Tonic

LEMON PARADE

(Polydor)

Tonic's reconfiguration of Southern rock gives a fresh lilt to familiar moves. There are heavy guitar riffs and plenty of slide guitar, but also variations with lap steel, mandolin, dobro, and didjeridoo. It's a brilliant elixir of guitar-drenched rock that revels in its own simplicity. Lemon Parade is a moody, ominous disc -- murky in lead singer Emerson Hart's storytelling, uplifting in guitarist Jeff Russo's tight, riveting melodies. "Open Up Your Eyes" and "Wicked Soldier" both feature razor-sharp guitar work, though most of Lemon Parade (especially "Casual Affair" and "Soldier's Daughter") is colored with softer Southern influences -- guitar twang, sweet melodies, vocal harmonies. Although most of their debut album is textbook at best, Tonic's spiritual interpretation of guitar rock opens paths for the "new rock" genre, whose current heroes are the stodgy, oppressive Collective Soul.

-- Jonathan Vena

(Tonic play the Paradise next Thursday, November 14, with Dishwalla and the Refreshments.)