The great R.E.M./U2 collaboration that never happened? That’s the impression you might get from Black Kite‘s opening hymn, “Highways”, but then Silver Tongues shifts into high-energy noise with “Ketchup”–which is still not too far from early U2–before getting all acoustic on the beautiful and mysterious title cut.Shifting from one mood to another is not really a forsaking of style or vision, it’s a demonstration that this Kentucky outfit has the talent and ability to reach beyond the walls of some confining, and perhaps imagined, genre. Not everything here works. “Warsaw” and “Hope For” seem to get muddled in attempts at being earnest. However, more of Black Kite works than not, and one suspects that this band will work that all out by the time its next album rolls around.