Artist: Elbow (www.elbow.co.uk)

Album: “The Seldom Seen Kid” (Fiction/Geffen)

England’s Elbow has had both a charmed and cursed existence, creating beautifully interesting records for what now amounts to something like five major labels. Soldiering on, Guy Garvey and company have cast another set of tunes that combine ambitious arrangements and musicianship with radio-worthy melodies.

“Starlings” begins with a sparse love song that contains exquisite lines like “You are the only thing in any room you’re ever in” and “Yes, I’m asking you to back a horse that’s good for glue — and nothing else.”

Both “The Bones of You” and “Mirrorball” recall the smart, expansive pop of XTC circa “Black Sea” while the combination of Garvey’s raspy, ethereal voice, and the heady mix of percussion and acoustic guitar in “Grounds For Divorce” is hypnotic. And when the songs kicks in full-on with modal droning a la Zeppelin, it becomes almost mind-bending.

The slinky, minor-keyed “An Audience With the Pope” is simply a perfect marriage of music, lyrics and melody. If you can find me a better line than, “I have an audience with the pope and I’m saving the world at 8. But if she says she needs me ... everybody’s gonna have to wait,” I’d like to hear it.

“The Fix,” in its own quirky way, is a melding of classic pop, Bertolt Brecht and the show tunes of Anthony Newley. And the fully orchestrated “One Day Like This” is as uplifting (if not fatalistic) as some of the other tunes are dark.

If the booklet is laid out like a program for a play, there’s good reason. The songs paint unusually rich, pictures that create images as vivid as a novel.

***

Artist: Ween (www.ween.com)

Album: “The Friends EP” (Chocodog)

While there’s nothing new here for serious Ween fans, this five-song EP contains material recorded post 2007’s “La Cucaracha.” And, as usual, each song offers up another glimpse into the band’s vast storehouse of musical ideas.

Following an edgy remix of “Friends” (from “La Cucaracha”) comes “I Got to Put the Hammer Down,” a synth-driven rocker (and live staple) that manages to turn a simple riff and drum loop into a tough, clever anthem. “King Billy” offers another change-up, with Ween morphing into more than a convincing reggae band and, in the vein of Santana’s overplayed “Smooth,” “Light Me Up” effectively one-ups him, copping the guitarists’ style and trumping his melody — but adding some sly humor. Closing the disc is “Slow Down Boy,” a schmaltzy, pleading ballad that’s straight out of ’80s Brit pop.

As if there was any doubt, this reaffirms that Ween is one of the America’s slyest and most inventive groups. This EP isn’t just for completists.

— By Michael Lipton

***

Artist: Novaflow (www.myspace.com/novaflow)

Album: “The Fix”

Good bands seem to come from out of nowhere. Sometimes they crop up like dandelions in your back yard.

According to their bio, Novaflow “hails from the country music hotbed state of West Virginia.” Once you get past the snickering, it turns out the trio (Jeff Stevens, Ben Keenan and Matt Walker) is from Huntington — not exactly known as a country oasis by any length of the imagination, but never mind. They were active in the scene a few years back, but it’s been a long spell since they’ve been home. They exported themselves to the South and commenced to tour.

They’ve done pretty well for themselves apparently. Their first album, “The Fix,” through Project Records, is pop-rock radio friendly and catchy. The music is solid. The lyrics are well put together without slipping into either complaint rock or sophomore silliness that seems to be what the cool kids in punk/pop do when they run out anything else to say. Novaflow isn’t a think-piece art band, but more of a good-times rock and roll outfit.  

Most of the album’s songs are band compositions and high-quality/high-energy songs, but Novaflow is still a young band with an incomplete catalog of original material. Tossing in a recognizable cover is an easy way to both show off their roots and have at least one song to play everyone knows. They chose “House of the Rising Sun.” It’s practically a weepy rock standard and a nice cover, but they could have easily left it off.

— By Bill Lynch