The Say So

If the Mars Volta carried on the hyperactive, experimental legacy of At the Drive-In while Sparta, the original four-piece’s other half, simplified into plain old straightforward rock, the Say So is a band that comes close to splitting the difference. Insistently poppy on first listen, Something Like Wild, the group’s first release under its new name (formerly En Plein Air), reveals upon closer inspection a certain angular sensibility — particularly in the rhythm section, which recalls the syncopated, almost fragmented interplay between Sting and Stewart Copeland found in the Police’s earlier work. Impeccably and creatively produced — it dabbles, for example, in the kind of occasional stereo manipulation of which Q and not U was fond — Something Like Wild is the work of a band that, if not quite fully realized, has some serious potential.