Itโ€™s been six years now since The Beta Band ended the brief first stage of their career (three bewitching EPs) and embarked on the second: proper albums, coherent gigs, and a prolonged sense of anti-climax. After 2001โ€™s slightly disappointing appropriation of R&B, Hot Shots II, Heroes To Zeros is, sadly, a slightly disappointing attempt to hammer their quirks into a more commercial rock shape.

The way the songs lope around in circles hasnโ€™t materially changed, and thereโ€™s still something appealing about Steve Masonโ€™s lackadaisical chants. But the bullish treatments (foul U2-style guitars on โ€œAssessmentโ€, a characteristically prissy mix from Nigel Godrich) are too heavy-handed for such whimsical and fundamentally fragile songs. Thereโ€™s an air of desperation, finality: an indie label, a minuscule budget and a regression into semi-competence would suit The Beta Band much better.