Saintkarla

Musically, Saintkarla are spirited, enterprising, and all over the map—hence, presumably, the hummingbird used as this album's cover art. Theirs, indeed, is a melting pot brand of rock. And while that doesn't work for everyone, if you've the attention span, there's a lot to draw from Elephant in the Room.

There's an overall flow to the sequence of songs here, and they all point to the idea that this band is not any one thing—Saintkarla's too simplistic to be prog, and too cerebral to be California stoner rock.

Three tracks in, on "Sing," is when things reach their most interesting on this disc: The song boasts a hooky, sing-along chorus and frantic, precision riffs built around unpredictable changes in pace and direction. Drummer Bryan David seems to lead the band down dark, experimental alleyways here with ever-changing rhythm patterns, always leaving room for John Perez's strange-sounding guitar diggings.

It's pretty fun stuff, really.

But, again, it's scatterbrained: Elephant in the Room is at times sarcastic, melodramatic and not at all self-aware. Saintkarla is a band that, even amidst high odds that they will be, does not appear the slightest bit worried about being misinterpreted.

As a result, Elephant is mostly a dizzying collision of sounds and aesthetics. But you can't help but look at it as you file past.