Dr. Dog leaves a 'Void'

“Internally, the main difference was we wanted to sound more like we did live. We wanted to have more guitars on our album. We wanted to play more dynamically,” Dr. Dog co-frontman Scott McMicken said in October, comparing the band’s then-latest album, 2010’s “Shame, Shame,” with its 2008 predecessor “Fate.”

At that time, the band had just finished recording “Be the Void.” How did he tease the upcoming record?

“I think we even got a little bit closer with this one,” McMicken said.

There is no denying McMicken’s assessment of “Shame, Shame,” which remains Dr. Dog’s best effort to date. Dr. Dog built its following on its live show ­— one that can get a drunk crowd of rock ’n’ roll purists sweating faster than Mr. Eric Patrick Clapton himself, as it did here twice in the past two years. “Shame” was a fantastic step toward better translating that guitar energy on record.

This time, though, they might have stepped a bit too far.

“Be the Void” is loaded with cuts that will still work best from the stage. The problem is that the dynamics the band members achieved on “Shame” seem to have compromised the importance of a fully realized song idea to them.

It’s as if they were so excited to get back into the studio and try it again, they ended up rushing the songs.

Unlike “Fate” and “Shame,” “Be the Void” rarely pushes past elementary, albeit very-well-produced riffs and “Carry That Weight”-style sing-alongs for choruses, from as early as its first line: “Oh, what does it take to be lonesome?/Nothin’ at alllll!”

Twelve years in, McMicken and his bandmates remain up-front about wearing the music of their parents’ generation on their sleeves. On “Be the Void,” they're still on a mission to deliver the best songs never written by Paul McCartney or Ray Davies (“Well I am the ancient warrior man and I am from the ancient warrior clan/I invented the computer, man/Hubcaps and soda cans,” Toby Leaman repeats nearly 10 times on “Warrior Man” in a fake British accent).

That’s still a valid M.O., and it’s one that some festival-hoppers might never get enough of. Those listening to “Be the Void,” though, will probably tire much sooner.