Pitchfork

While not quite notorious, Black Box Recorder earned at least a tad of infamy when a song of theirs was banned from UK radio in 1998. Their first single, "Child Psychology," cooed wisdom in its chorus: "Life is unfair; kill yourself or get over it." Sure, they were just being wry and British, but it didn't matter to the powers-that-be; apparently, kidding or not, telling people to commit suicide was far too scandalous.

It's important to note that our own MTV Yank also refused to air the video until the line was edited. And so it was. The video was aired, like, once on "120 Minutes" (naturally), and Black Box Recorder slipped into the typical obscurity British bands can come to expect in America. It didn't really matter though, because their debut, England Made Me, was an unremarkable bit of pretentious moroseness that pleased itself more than it could possibly please most listeners.

The Facts of Life isn't necessarily a conscious move to keep censors and listeners happy, but it's bound to do both much more successfully than its predecessor. With this record, the Black Box Recorder crew-- John Moore, ex-Auteur Luke Haines, and vocalist Sarah Nixey-- trade straight-faced, desert-arid humor for genuine grins.

Musically, the album is more finely crafted than England Made Me, even if it follows the same minimalist, laconic approach to pop music. But this time out, the bare-bones approach is more lush and rich, paradoxically proving that "minimal" does not necessarily have to mean "sparse." The album's opener, "The Art of Driving," is a majestic, sweeping number that uses an echo-laden beat, sodden bass, and lightly strummed guitar to create a pillow of sound. The chorus of "French Rock 'N' Roll" is graced with a searing guitar hook that intensifies the canned drums and xylophone twinkling. "Straight Life" is as subdued as the rest of the record, though buried is a perfect midtempo, subdued electro beat.

It's all extremely pretty, and without seeming completely manipulative or cloying. Black Box Recorder, however, are still a bit dopey when it comes to lyrics. True, they're no longer fretting over the end of the world and all things maudlin. Instead, they exhibit a preoccupation with transit, on tunes like the aforementioned "The Art of Driving" and "The English Motorway System." Vocalist Sarah Nixey still sounds faulty in her cleverness and smugness. The male-female spoken banter on "The Art of Driving" plays like a British answer to Mad magazine's "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions" as Nixey is asked "Do you believe in love at first sight?/ Do you believe in fate?" Her terribly silly answer is: "I believe that good things only come to those who wait."

The lyrics fare no better when the subject turns to sex, as it often does. The title track sports a lite reggae beat and melody that sounds all too similar to Dido's "Thank You." We find Nixey staccato, nearly rapping during the verses when she takes the role of a fifth grade health teacher: "When boys are just 11/ They begin to grow in height/ At a faster rate than they have done before/ They develop curiosity/ And start to fantasize/ About the things they've never thought of doing before."

Similarly "naughty" (or at least, they seem to think so) is "Sex Life," which tries its hand at being provocative with lines like "Girl on girl/ In your dreams/ Girl's on top/ In between/ Girls together/ Girls alone/ In your dreams/ In your dreams." She goes on to substitute girl with "boy," which is obviously not enough to make the lyrics any less laughable. Plus, Blur beat them to the punch with "Girls and Boys."

But Nixey isn't utterly at fault since she's merely a mouthpiece. She doesn't write any of the lyrics (or music, for that matter) that she sings, which may account for her sleepy delivery. When she's not merely speaking and opens her pipes to really sing, she proves herself a righteous puppet. Her delicate, melismatic approach is often gorgeous and perfectly suited by the music the boys lay under her. Her voice is uncannily similar to Olivia Newton-John's and what's even scarier is that it works.

The Facts of Life, contrived bawdiness and all, probably won't cause the stir of "controversy" that the first record did, and Black Box Recorder sound all the better for it. Still, there's no telling what the UK or our great nation may deem inappropriate; even Newton-John's "Physical" was banned from a few radio stations in Utah. Apparently, some Mormons even frown on euphemism. No matter, because the question here isn't so much, "Have you never been mellow?" as it is, "When have you not been mellow?" For Black Box Recorder, it's been a long time. Let's hope they find themselves even more chill when it comes time to write lyrics for the next album.