Monitor: Listen

Nightmares on Wax - "Mind Elevation"

Words: Ryan Chaffee

Warp Records - $18.98

"Can a chill-out record be too chilled-out?" is the stoner dilemma George Evelyn has confronted and usually with triumphant downtempo-soul aplomb. But he sounds cashed on NoW's latest, mood music for a lazy smoking circle and their joint-rolling robot. Tracks like "Environment" strive for the spirited R&B eclecticism of NoW's past, until ill-conceived ambient interlude "Soul-Ho" prompts our hypothetical tokers to perk up and fumble for the disc-skip button. At times Mind returns to grooving form but the whole can't hold a flame to 1999's blunted masterpiece Carboot Soul.