Lawrence.com

"Mayeye tell uhall sumthing eyeno?/Asking too much eznt ahlot wen yur ask-king god."

So begins the debut full-length album from Lawrence's Kelpie, as dictated by the album's printed lyrics. As these two pages of phonetically garbled liner notes seem to indicate, Kelpie speaks its own musical language.

"Hey Friends, It's Kelpie!" is like nothing else you'll hear this year. It's as awesome as it is frustrating, tempting the ire of impatient listeners while simultaneously rewarding them with transcendent melodic revelations. It's one of our town's finest musical moments, and also one of its biggest WTFs.

Taken in spurts of 10-15 seconds, Kelpie is a perfectly reasonable pop band. They like classic rock and they like indie rock - no surprises there. The kicker is that they don't like any particular melody, rhythm or time signature for more than 15 seconds. The majority of "Hey Friends, It's Kelpie!" sounds like Steely Dan playing a game of red light/green light with The New Pornographers, maniacally flashing red cards every time the other hits on a hook. A common response to the album's title might be: "Hey Kelpie, It's Friends! Stay in one place!"

Album Mp3s

Hey Friends, It's Kelpie!

• "Rail"
• "Ryan Johnson"
• "Fruitful"

More

At times it's painful, because the melodies are so good. Lead singer Casey Burge is a talented songwriter who shares the twisted genius of A.C. Newman (The New Pornographers) and/or Craig Wedren (Shudder to Think). He's backed by a trio of superbly schooled musicians - John Momberg on drums, Josh Atkinson on keys, Nate Harold on bass (who also contributes a couple songs) - that somehow manages to keep up with his schizophrenic vision while adding their own unique flourishes.

The album certainly makes for a compelling listen, particularly in a setting where it's nice to be distracted - a jog on the track or a long car ride for instance. Standout tracks like "Dubai" and "Ryan Johnson" hit on some amazing moments that can be downright goosebump-inducing. "Fruitful" contains some of the coolest chords I've heard in a long while, while "Ah Don't Ask" is a perfectly goofy "White Album" outtake.

All things considered, "Hey Friends, It's Kelpie!" is a great ride. Its musicians are inventive, its singers harmonize with a great deal of complexity and its composers are more ambitious than your run-of-the-mill rock types. Sometimes lost in the shuffle, however, is the most important contributor to any album - the listener.