The Dandy Warhols: Courtney Taylor-Taylor (vocals, guitar, bass); Peter Loew (guitar); Zia McCabe (keyboards, keyboard bass, background vocals); Brent DeBoer (bass, drums, background vocals).

Additional personnel includes: Yoad Nevo (guitar, programming); Niles Rodgers (guitar); Brian Coates (guitarpsichord); Parker Posey (mandolin); Jaimie Jackson (electric piano); Tony Visconti (bass, background vocals); Nick Rhodes (synthesizer); Sally Boyden, Sam Doss, Simon LeBon (background vocals).

Producers: Courtney Taylor-Taylor, Nick Rhodes, Tony Visconti.

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.

Never one to hide from their influences (look no further than the name), Portland natives the Dandy Warhols post them proudly on their fourth effort, WELCOME TO THE MONKEY HOUSE--they're literally on the album sleeve (note the Velvet Underground-esque banana). The record takes its name from a collection of Kurt Vonnegut short stories, and akin to the heralded author, stories unfold within stories, words cavort within folds within folds.

The Dandy Warhols are unabashedly pretentious, painfully self-conscious, and often as pretty and precious as the most petulant ingenue; they also are purveyors of some of the most beguiling pop music this side of the cosmos. On WELCOME..., the Dandys inject into their glam-updated-into-indie-rock formula a healthy dose of 1980s synth-pop (with aid from no less than the heart and soul of Duran Duran itself, Simon LeBon & Nick Rhodes). The result is perhaps their most satisfying record to date, a clever, consistently catchy collection of songs, affable in spite of its sarcasm, sonically organic in spite of its sources. An opening semi-narrative salvo offers a few unforgettable observations woven together artfully before the band launches into single-of-singles "We Used to Be Friends" (the hooky equal of 2000's "Bohemian Like You") and from there the pop artistry never lets up.