Dynamite StepsSub Pop **

At this stage it would be churlish to expect an upbeat album from Greg Dulli. Dynamite Stepsis certainly as murky as anything the alt.rock stalwart has ever done, but it's also a lot less exciting. Most of these 11 tracks offer nothing but weak melodies, tokenistic "dark" lyrics and little in the way of progression. Wavesand She Was Stolenare among the more robust tracks, but even they sound like Nine Inch Nails rip-offs, with Dulli's uneven, overwrought voice doing a bad Bryan Ferry impression at times. Added to the surfeit of cheesy, surging guitar riffs, studio-enhanced atmospherics and pointless cameos from Mark Lanegan and Ani Di Franco, Dynamite Stepsis more of a major misstep than one with any sort of boom. See twilightsingers.com

Download tracks: Waves, The Beginning of the End