Oneida have now been around long enough for them to officially be considered as veterans on the indie rock scene. Together since 1997, this is their sixth full-length album, the latest in a line of recordings which has shown the band growing from their garage-rock roots, to embracing elements of psychadelia, krautrock, avant-garde noise, and retro-style synthpop. With each album, their range of styles and influences has increased, usually without weakening the core sound of the band.

On "Secret Wars", the band don't bring anything especially new to the table - there isn't really any concepts laid out here which haven't been heard on previous Oneida releases. What they do do is attempt to consolidate their sound, building on their past releases to create an album which is solid, but unfortunately for the band, it's also a record which is pretty unspectacular.

The three songs which start the album, Treasure Plane, Caesar's Column and Capt. Bo Dignifies the Allegations With a Response, are amongst some of the best music that Oneida have ever produced. The first song is a hook-laden blanked of fuzzy guitars and keyboards, with hushed-up vocals and a pop-rock vibe. From there, the album abruptly shifts gears into the Teutonic march of Caesar's Column, a hypnotic four minutes of droning guitar noise. Capt. Bo Dignifies the Allegations With a Response is a synth-punk ditty which is as whimsical as its title suggests.

From that point in though, the album loses steam, and the songs aren't quite as strong. Take The Winter Shaker for instance, which is five minutes of the same riff, a riff that wasn't even particularly that good to start off with, repeating over and over again. Things get a bit brighter towards the end with the instrumental jam Changes In The City which at least ends the album on a positive note, with fourteen minutes of musical exploration and sonic texture being served up.

If Oneida's previous records didn't make them into international superstars, then neither will "Secret Wars". That doesn't mean that it's a terrible record though, it's just a little too inconsistent to really recommend it as a great album.