***1/2 The Original Sins

BETHLEHEM

(Bar/None)

Nearly 10 years after their Bar/None debut, and with eight albums under their belt, the Original Sins have decided to shed their garage/grunge carapace of urgently cheap thrills and assume the more musically expansive posture of cheap irony. It's the kind of thing that comes from not dying. Fortunately, longevity has left singer/writer/guitarist John Terlesky with a droll outlook, a knack for lightly mocking pop/rock ditties, and the certainty that every lining has a cloud.

This kind of cleverness doesn't sit well with everybody, and if you think Ween are insufferable little twerps, you might find Terlesky's more subtle tweaks at pop/rock tropes mere wise-assery. But consider: "Beautiful Day" makes the point that too many sunny days equals a drought; "Wish I Was Here" actually finds a new way to express our old friend alienation ("How I wish that I was here/Instead of where I really am"); "My Struggles" makes the Strawberry Alarm Clock sound deep; these and other cuts here sound, if not Beatles-esque, then Kinks-esque, or maybe early solo Nick Lowe-esque . . . consider all that, and if you're still not interested, then, well, you're just wrong.

-- Richard C. Walls