Music Review: 'The Sky at Night' (2012)

The first release since 1989 from this respected Athens, Ga., rock band (they reportedly scrapped three albums' worth of material before Sky) is, as might be expected, meticulously thought-out -- carefully opaque lyrics; melodies that dissolve into slow-building grooves -- and a tad dry for all the effort. But there's beauty embedded in the fussiness (''Bright,'' ''Palace of Illusion''), and at times, most notably on the title song, they rock as stolidly as any fan of Pylon, early R.E.M., or, for that matter, Love Tractor could want. B+