When a group releases a long-awaited follow-up album to a disc that floored most music critics and fans, it might come as a surprise an album entitled Ten Silver Drops only holds eight songs.

But don’t think you’re getting ripped off by the new effort from Secret Machines. The disc is filled with epic tracks, boasting songs spanning four minutes to over eight. Still, you’re left wanting more. More of a finish, more energy, more of what the first album delivered.

The group tried, but they only came so close. In its breakout album, Now Here is Nowhere, the songs were a mounting attack. They would intensify, exploding all-out rock energy upon the listener from the very beginning, like in the opening track “First Wave Intact.”

This album has that growth. The opening tune “Alone, Jealous, and Stoned” shows it, but in the end, the song fails to fully satisfy.

One thing the band is able to retain is that dreamy sound – reminiscent of U2 and a less-quirky Flaming Lips. Drops has a subtle rhythmic flow and mysteriously pervasive lyrics that fit the style unique to Secret Machines.

“Through the dawn I’d seen it, too/I caught a glimpse, I thought was her,” croon the Curtis brothers Brandon and Benjamin on “Lightning Blue Eyes.”

Still, the Nowhere effort remains the band’s best. The vocals were more integrated on the first album and the bass was far more powerful. The guitars would occasionally go spectacularly neo-psych in “Sad and Lonely.” It was an attack you didn’t see coming.

In Drops, “Daddy’s in the Doldrums” is an over-eight-minute song that only attempts to impress on the guitar. The attack has shriveled to a murmur.

Several of the songs strike a chord with some of the best of classic rock. However, you’re still left disappointed because the first four songs of this album outdo the last four by far. By the second half of the album the sound gets old because nothing exciting is incorporated to make it fresh.

Those looking for a more restrained and old-fashioned indie-psych sound will be pleased (ignore the Warner Bros. record label).

Moral of the story: Download the first half of the album and save some money. We’re left wishing Secret Machines would continue the attack and provide more understated surprises. Instead, Drops aims big but falls short. The sound remains epic in nature, but middling in stature. Maybe next time we’ll get the whole ten drops.

DOWNLOAD THESE

– “Alone, Jealous, and Stoned”

– “All At Once (It’s Not Important)”

– “Faded Lines”

Contact reporter Adam Z. Winer at winerdbk@gmail.com.