Punchline opens with the stomping, violin-based "We Tried", which features one of the band's weaker vocalists - there are several - on the lead, sounding about as radio-friendly as a pop/rock song without a discernible guitar in it can. It changes course abruptly on the second track, "Until Then", which features vaguely pretty finger picking on a guitar and a hook that wouldn't sound out of place if it were sung by Jack Johnson. From there, we're led into the cartoon jazz of "Slip Baby Slip", and then onto the yowling, Gogol Bordello-like gypsy punk of "Give It Away". By the time you're less than a third of the way through the record, Punchline's jumped from genre to genre to genre to genre, with different vocalists taking on the main singing duties. In short, this record should sound like a fucking mess.

It's to the Boulder Acoustic Society's credit, then, that it doesn't. In fact, it feels like a very deliberate statement, downright consistent in making its point that they're not interested in an easy definition or being confined to a single genre. Or, hell, any of a half-dozen genres. Instead of playing like a mixtape full of tracks obviously written by the band's various songwriters, the production, by Colorado music mainstay John Macy, ensures that the band maintains a signature sound throughout the course of the record. While the Tom Waits-y piano ballad "I Feel Like I've Seen You Before" may bear little resemblance to the showtunes-style "A Life For Two", the violin sound remains the same on the two tracks, and the piano sounds like the same old piece of furniture each time it's used.

And this - along with those catchy hooks - is why Punchline is a fun record. Experimentation, when it's done unpretentiously like this, can be a blast to listen to. The band may lack a solid identity, but any group with an ability to effectively ape John Denver on "Take My Hand" and Devotchka on "So Confused" does have a vision for what they're doing - even if it's just being a gang of defiant chameleons. It may be one of the least cohesive long-playing records you'll hear this year, but that doesn't mean it's inconsistent. Punchline is still a set of catchy songs that always sounds like it was made by the same band. They may get some shit for being all over the map, but it's hard to imagine what else a band can - or should - be expected to deliver, especially as the concept of the album is under siege from both market and creative forces.

It's possible that making a record with a dozen or so tracks in the same genre is set to be a thing of the past anyway, and while there are liable to be those who could do without hearing something influenced by any one of the particular influences that the Boulder Acoustic Society wear so proudly on their sleeve, it's hard to argue that they ought to be making music for those people, anyway. With a handful fewer expectations from what a record should be, and a little more interest in exploring what it might be, even the listeners who pick up Punchline hoping that it'll actually deliver the grey ponytail fun that the band's name suggests will find something to hold on to as well.

Recommended Tracks: Slip Baby Slip, Give it Away

-Dan Solomon