(Reprise Records)
Celebrating somewhere around a decade of nudge-wink indie, Guster is an inoculation against hipster nonsense, ginning up a cross between Belle & Sebastian and arena rock for lack of a handier label. They’re all over the place, targeting Pink Floyd’s “Us and Them” on “Empire State,” chumming out Beach Boys choruses here and there, and generally wreaking beauty upon your drivetime. Ryan Miller’s voice usually does a Jackson Browne thing, rarely getting the least bit excited, but when he lunges for an upper register it’s more like Maroon 5 (”Dear Valentine”), thus it’s too good for Indieland but too proud to cater to MTV; overall an endearing experience that includes plenty of things that’d fit in just fine on anybody’s alt-rock mix-burn.
