From the sound of things, absolutely nothing in the world can get Benjy Davis rattled—not Katrina, not obsessive love, not life on the road, not the Iraq war. At least one of these heavy topics turns up in every song on his Project’s fourth album, and damned if they don’t sound pleasant, relaxed and laid-back on all of it.

This is the nice-guy edge of jam-band rock, the space also occupied by Dave Matthews and Counting Crows. Like those bands, Davis writes melodies that seem improvised on the spot; they curl and ramble pleasantly but never jell into a strong hook. The band’s sole function seems to be staying out of the singer’s way: Violin and Hammond organ are use to make a pleasant, cushy backdrop that implies rock but never quite breaks a sweat. And the scary part is that, thanks to longtime Prince cohort David Z’s production, the band sounds as funky as it ever will (though with less lead guitar than there’s been in the past). But Z didn’t manage to break drummer Nic Capdevielle out of the semi-military snare patterns that he plays on nearly every tune.

You have to wonder how he can deliver an intense sentiment (“I love you stronger than I can hold / worth more than dying for”) and still sound like he hasn’t left his reclining chair. The antiwar sentiments of “Whose God” would sound more resonant if the music had any trace of righteous anger. Likewise, “Graves” (one of two explicitly Katrina-inspired songs) sports some resonant words (the chorus is “You build the houses / I’ll dig the graves”), but the jaunty countryish setting is all wrong; including two of the most polite band crash-ins in recorded history.

To be fair, there are moments here that threaten to get exciting: “Clowns” sports a nifty sing-along chorus and a lyric that equates rock-band tours to circus life—but then, Lenny Kravitz once extended that metaphor for an entire album. And when your most original moment recalls Lenny Kravitz, you’ve got yourself a problem.