You know all those retro indie bands around today that make music styled in the vein of ’60s psychedelic pop, only mildly updating it with more modern (but still tepid) production tricks? Well, that stuff has actually been going on as far back as the ’90s.

Dusk at Cubist Castle is an extremely derivative album, and while that does make an album less exciting to hear the first time, it doesn’t mean The Olivia Tremor Control lack the ability to make songs greater than their influences. For most of the album, they either do—or come pretty close without anything too mind-blowing (because this is still a retread).

The most unique part of the album is the ten-piece “Green Typewriters” set, a mix of experimental noodling and sound collages that actually end up being completely uninteresting and add nothing to the album surrounding it. Avant-garde for its own sake, and the only thing that that comes close to being captivating is the nine-minute ambient setting of the 19th track; and even then it stands at odds with the rest of the album. Overall, the “Green Typewriters” pieces turn what could have been a good psych pop album into a drag that is way too long (74 minutes!) and inconsistent to justify itself.