lfie have chosen a pretty appropriate title for their newest album. A Word In Your Ear certainly sounds like the whispered conversations you might have with a lover. Pretty, beautiful, little songs that are warm and intimate. Sweet nothings on a CD.

The relaxed melody of the title track opens the album with soft, easy going harmonies and a meandering guitar. Coming up slowly and leisurely, it takes its time building a mellow groove that is reminiscent of something that the Stone Roses or the Charlatans would be nodding their heads happily to.

It's not all happy, though. There is an undeniable tension on most of these songs. They start out sweet, and beautiful, but Alfie give the impression that something is underneath trying to get out. It’s as though the band just can’t take writing such beautiful tunes anymore, and just wants to let the noise fly. On “Bends for 72 Miles”, chiming guitars and a funky bassline groove along unassumingly while a guitar pick gets dragged slowly along the strings, lurking in the background. The vocals and guitars grow and around the minute mark, the song twitches and the guitars growl. Everything crashes and clatters around, letting the rhythm section guide them back to the melody, only to twitch again and let the effects pedals have some fun. This time though, the din melts into a joyful, sing-a-long of horns and counterpoint vocals. All in three minutes and thirty seconds time. Perfect.

Predictably, the production botches much of the tension in these songs. As seems to be the big mistake of most indie pop groups these days, Alfie lick all of their songs to a gleaming, spitty clean. They’ve sanded almost all of the rough edges, and now there’s nothing left to cut your teeth on. I’m all for an immaculately produced pop song, but there’s only so much I can take before I get bored with the spit and shine and long for something that throws me curveballs. Something with personality. The tracks are mixed to similarly, and everything becomes mushy. If they wanted to go for it, Alfie could have gone way over the top, and really cleaned it up, making it at least sharp and sparkly. But as it is now, the layers on most of the songs are muddied and lost. It’s like mixing all your colors of paint together, ending with a shit gray.

Occasionally, Alfie wanders into Elephant 6 territory and get overly decorative, adding strings, and flutes and whatever the hell else they feel like, whether it helps the song or not. “Flutes? Why the hell not? Let’s see just how much pretty crap we can jam into one song guys!” Which is not to say that the decoration doesn’t always work, on “Rain, Heaven, Hail” Alfie layers guitars, keyboards, and some horns that sound like they’re coming in over a transistor radio to great effect. It’s a mini-epic of a tune, clocking in at 6:31, complete with tempo changes and enough fey, four part harmonies to make your average Belle and Sebastian fan weak at the knees.

But in the end, A Word In Your Ear is fluff. And I mean that in the best possible way. Pretty songs to make your heart swoon, and keep you company on a breezy day. Nothing too deep. Nothing too rocking. Sweet nothings indeed.