Kris Roe has always had big dreams. Now he's finally got the band and the disc to bring them to life.

In the wake of his 2003 commercial breakthrough So Long, Astoria, the Ataris frontman and songwriter rebuilt his group almost from the ground up, swelling from a quartet to a septet with extra guitars, keyboards and even a cellist.

Not surprisingly, his sixth CD Welcome the Night is a far cry from the cookie-cutter pop-punk of The Ataris' youth. These 13 tracks are easily Roe's most ambitious and fully realized works to date, with artfully layered sonics, grandly sweeping arrangements and deft post-emo beats that anchor yearning vocals and melodramatically poetic lyrics about death, loss, nostalgia and regret. Upbeat commercial moments like the jabbing hook in Not Capable of Love are in short supply amid the darkness, which might make this a difficult sell -- and might explain why the band parted ways with their last label and released it on their own.

But even though Roe's relentlessly bleak outlook and overblown musical aspirations might not be the stuff of fans' dreams, they're obviously what his are made of.

Track Listing:

1. Not Capable Of Love
2. Cardiff-By-The-Sea
3. New Years Day
4. Secret Handshakes
5. The Cheyenne Line
6. And We All Become Like SMoke
7. Connections Are More Dangerous Than Lies
8. Whatever Lies Will Help You Rest
9. From The Last, Last Call
10. When All Else Fails It Fails
11. A Soundtrack For This Rainy Morning
12. Begin Again Fro The Beginning
13. Act V, Scene IV: And So It Ends Like It Begins