Subjects can overcome the moment, while styles can quietly and seemingly by some consensus, start to dominate. So it is that indie rock"s turned toward the literary and historical narrative, via Okkervil River, the Decemberists, the Arcade Fire, and now, Lawrence, Kansas"s White Whale. Maybe this is the same current that made punk rock a "safe" study for academics in the late-90s--a current that puts grad students in rock bands. As it relates to White Whale, the literary/historical turn here is grandly set against minor-key, piano-colored tunes that feature mixed choruses that"ll delight Arcade Fire fans (along with fans of bands who share members with WW--the Get-Up Kids, Butterglory, and Thee Higher Burning Fire). There are exclamatory, epic sweeps aplenty here--as when singer Matt Suggs intones "And who throws parties like these anymore?/Did they not go out of fashion before the war?" The tunes here do stand out, but they bog down in their lyrical weight, something a great book rarely does. --Andrew Bartlett