You have to hand it to an Americana/garage-rock band that can condense its sophomore effort into 11 tracks, totaling just 37 minutes. Why? Well, for one, because there are just too many ego-driven double albums out lately, and two, because it's refreshing to hear a group that realizes less can be more. With "Mission Control," that's just what Athens, GA, trio The Whigs [ tickets ] have proven.

The album kick-starts with hard-punk force, then drifts through some freewheeling neo-psychedelica and finally exits with an organic, stimulating anthem of horns and heavy riffs, all without getting stale. Swanky southern moodiness, steady driving raw guitars and inspiring choruses saunter and shuffle throughout the album. It's a hodgepodge of '90s grunge-pop vibrancy and classic rock, which amounts to lots of identifiable points of reference.

There's Dave Grohl enthusiasm within "Already Young" and "I Got Ideas." The upbeat rowdiness of The Replacements flows freely in the opening track "Like a Vibration" and "Need You Need You." The lazy, blurry-eyed "1000 Wives" could easily have been written by Neil Young, and seems to be the most Bonnaroo-ready song on the album--although there are definitely other worthy contenders. My Morning Jacket would likely tip a hat to the wailing, lonesome vocals and spontaneous jam moments of "Hot Bed." Every track carries its own enticing style, but "Right Hand on My Heart" makes the biggest impression with its persistent guitar riffs, stirring vocals and rousing cymbal crashes.

The most remarkable aspect of "Mission Control" is The Whigs' ability to incorporate so many sounds into one record with such confidence, commitment and brevity. They do it well. "Mission Control" is an album that in one instant has listeners sitting on a barstool, crying into their beer, and the next, has them smashing said beer bottle and slam dancing without a care. This is how The Whigs do rock and roll, and mission control, or anyone else for that matter, can't stop them.