Indie band’s second album fails to impress

If you’re in need of background music for your next vegan barbecue with your American Apparel-clad hipster friends, Nana Grizol’s Ruth would be a good candidate. It would fit in seamlessly on your “Indie” playlist, and don’t worry —  no song is so fast it makes you bob your head to the point of choking on your soyaki burger or so slow it causes a narcoleptic slip into your ironically placed kiddie pool.

Not to insult Nana Grizol, but its sophomore follow-up to 2008’s rawer and punkier Love It Love It is hardly groundbreaking in the indie-rock landscape.

Perhaps their lack of ingenuity stems from their connection to the Elephant 6 collective, the exclusive Athens, Ga.-based posse of such indie music gods as Neutral Milk Hotel and Of Montreal. Many members of the collective live together on the Orange Twin Conservation Community, and, as a result, there is much crossover between the bands. In fact, two members of Neutral Milk Hotel are in Nana Grizol, and the various Elephant 6 bands often tour together.

Whether fair or not, you can’t help but compare Nana Grizol to their tusked counterparts, and in doing so find them extremely derivative and contrived. Lead singer and songwriter Theo Hilton’s determination to sing off-key in a nasally sort of way is distracting from the sometimes interesting horn and guitar parts, and listeners appreciate when he is joined in by others — specifically the female voice — all the more.

Nevertheless, it’s virtually impossible to listen to the album without bopping along at some point. You wonder if Hilton is suffering from ADD or lack of inspiration, because more than half the songs run under three minutes — hardly enough time for any epic greatness to unfold, though this does mean that the more lifeless songs are over quickly (perhaps mercifully).

But Ruth can still be enjoyable as long as you know what to expect. “Cynicism,” a slow, quiet, melodious mix of guitar and horns begins the jaunt into indie-rock territory, though it’s hardly representative of things to come. The subsequent “Galaxies” and “Black Box” are the quintessential head-boppers with a raw, crunchy guitar, simple but catchy drumbeat and lyrics easy enough to warrant a sing-along.

It’s when Hilton only presents his lackluster lyrics and melancholy guitar sounds that you are tempted to turn to Death Cab for Cutie for a complete serving of despondence. But most of the songs are fun and, for the most part, lack the pretentiousness of similar bands. Ruth ends with “Sands,” a well-composed song lasting almost five minutes, showing that perhaps Nana Grizol has better things to come if they could only escape the collective and venture out on its own.