Thievery Corporation: The Cosmic Game

Herald rating: * *

Washington duo's foreign policy friendly but dull

They're big enough now to attract an impressive guest list - here Flaming Lips, Perry Farrell and David Byrne share mike time with lesser-known voices of mostly reggae or Latin accent. But the Washington D.C. dub/exotic-beat duo of Eric Hilton and Rob Garza haven't lost their knack for blending it into another album that's impressive for sheer innocuousness.

Yes it's groovy in a tap-your-foot-outside-the-boutique-dressing-room kind of way. That Flaming Lips opening track is lovely, Byrne is his old self on the appealingly jerky The Heart's a Lonely Hunter, while Farrell's Revolution Solution sounds like an application for Jamaican citizenship. But the rest just hums along in its mock exotic way and soon feels like the musical equivalent to a holiday slide evening.

Label: Shock