The Bellrays - Have A Little Faith

California's The Bellrays haven't changed much over their career. While the band's contemporaries (Detroit Cobras, Dirtbombs, The Husbands) seem to be far more concentrated on sounding like clones of the American garage movement of the early '60s, Lisa Kekaula and company seem to be more interested in straying from the mold. Their musical repertoire has expanded to include more nuance than ever before here on their sixth album, Have A Little Faith. Front-woman Kekaula still roars over portions of the song and then dials back to a sultry whisper whenever necessary but now there are horn ensembles and pizzicato strings weaving in and out of the ruckus. Have A Little Faith opens by channeling Curtis Mayfield's wah-wah pedal with the song "Tell the Lie." The track's nearest relative on the record is the title number--they both share a similar aesthetic with wah-wah guitar parts that seem that they would be just as comfortable on a Bill Withers record. The punk/garage-influenced song "Detroit Breakdown" is the standout song as far as I'm concerned. It seems to be aimed directly at their contemporaries and begs the question "Do you live here every day of your life?" Bassist/producer Robert Vennum's lyrics lament the fact that the primary forces behind Detroit's proto-punk/garage movement are long gone: "No more Iggy or the MC5 / Wayne's [Kramer] been doin' it in LA now / So you're just livin' a lie." I found the record growing a little tedious by the time the last two songs came on, there just wasn't enough variance to carry the record through. Ultimately though, the album is good. It would make a welcome addition to the collection of fans of Motown, garage, and soul. The Bellrays have more than proven themselves as being at the forefront of the garage revival and are certain to produce quite a few more albums in the future. While their Maximum Rock 'n' Soul mantra may not be reinventing the wheel, I doubt anyone has asked them to. [www.thebellrays.com]