BETTER THAN EZRA
How Does Your Garden Grow (Elektra)
Rating: 5 1/2 out of 7
By Bill Holdship

   Back before Better Than Ezra emerged with a recording contract from the faceless pack of L.A. rockers slugging it out on the sleazy Sunset Strip, few critics could have predicted the band would ever get to make an album--let alone one this fine--for a major label.
   Truthfully, when the New Orleans band was signed out of its temporary L.A. base, it really seemed to be a lucky fluke. And while their Elektra debut featured the now-familiar radio staple, "Good," which sounded about as good as radio-friendly New Wave pop ever got in the '70s and early '80s, that certainly didn't prepare listeners for the growth BTE would demonstrate on this third release.
   Ezra's singer-songwriter Kevin Griffin seems comfortable enough these days to reclaim his band's New Orleans roots--the album was recorded at the band's new studio, right smack-dab in the middle of the Crescent City's Lower Garden District, hence the title--although listeners shouldn't be expecting "Iko, Iko" or the latest Cajun tunes. And yet, in classic New Orleans tradition, the band explores interesting rhythms and new instruments within a pop mode laced with a laid-back Louisiana spirit. "Je Ne M'en Souviens Pas" opens the album with an appropriate, keyboard-fueled mystical feel before kicking into a pretty cool white-boy rap, bursting with neat sound effects and harmoniums all over the place. "One More Murder" could be about any major American city--but New Orleans has been at the top of the murder capital list for years now, and the Ezra boys have turned the whole tragic notion into a haunting, memorable tune. In fact, the first four tracks here, culminating with the sing-along pop-rock tune "Like It Like That" are as fine as anything you'll hear this year.     
   From hypnotic mood pieces to latter-day Costello-esque folk-pop, the music on Better Than Ezra's third album is way better than their best work to date. Who'd've ever thunk it?