Roger Mexico

Together about six years, the Memphis art rock band Roger Mexico isn't well known around town. The bookish group, which takes its name from a character in Thomas Pynchon’s hefty opus “Gravity’s Rainbow,” doesn’t play out much, seemingly preferring the controlled environment of the studio to the messy spontaneity of live performance. Their seclusion has paid off, however, with a series of increasingly well-crafted records.

The band’s latest, The Emery Wheel, their third, comes two years after their last, 2008 self-titled effort, and represents a considerable leap forward in songwriting if not energy level. Ever prone to Radiohead-style pensiveness, the piano-driven The Emery Wheel may be Roger Mexico’s most low-key effort to date, with few songs rising above a whisper and a mopey beat.

The tracks that do — “A Fashioned Affection” with its electronica intro, the chaotic “T.E.W.” — are smart variations on the band’s ’80s Brit rock inspirations with lots of droning bass lines and swirling guitars. But the heart of the record is in the lush balladry of songs like “F14,” all full, ringing chords over a delicate soundscape, and the 8 1/2-minute album closing epic “Orange Liqueur.” - Commercial Appeal