Conduct

'Conduct' features 17 tracks of drawling indie-rock, with a smattering of minimal country-tinged ballads. It's definitely a bipolar release, switching between these two forms on a track-by-track basis, but the songs that work best are those that manage to incorporate both veins ('Straddle'). The most charming aspect of 'Conduct,' however, is its thorough simplicity -- even through occasional bursts of humor (a '50s-pop knock-off called 'Monkey Doll,' or an unexpected punk tune called 'Alice, All I Want Is Alice'), there's always the sense of a band enjoying itself, and never getting too ambitious or pretentious about their work.