As the name might suggest, Plants and Animals’ second album, La La Land, leaves you with a sense of addictive excitement and sombre disappointment. I wouldn’t use the term “sophomore slump” to describe it — but I’d at least suggest the term, and then strike it from the record following an objection. Fans of the band’s debut, Parc Avenue, have been playing the “underrated card” for a few years, but this album, while full of high points, might not be the one to win over the naysayers. The cross-generational approach has become all-too-common lately (thanks, in part, to MGMT’s Congratulations, released one week prior to La La Land), and some of the stretching comes across as just that.

With several instrumental hooks and extended repetitive choruses, one will likely find themselves either in a reflective daze or an eager annoyance. I experienced both, enjoying the tranquil mantra on “Game Shows” while running out of patience during the last 90 seconds of the otherwise excellent “The Mama Papa.” Both songs are standouts on the album, along with the stop-and-go build up of “Undone Melody” and the familiar but fantastic closing track “Jeans Jeans Jeans.” Tracks like “Kon Tiki” and “Fake It” stir up the detached wanderer vibe, but neither seem to go where you’d want them to. So just as the Hollywood VIP party inherently comes with a back-to-reality hangover, La La Land covers the spectrum of highs and lows and will surely lend itself to a variety of responses.

(Secret City Records, 2064 Jeanne-Mance, Montréal, QC  H2X 2J5 Canada)