Once the most pastoral and straitlaced of the Elephant 6 groups, the Green's new album The Long Goodbye takes some welcome steps past the folksy textures of its earlier albums. A few tracks still sound like the Beachwood Sparks, with flutes wafting through shuffling songs about days at the sea, but the group has livened up Goodbye with more organ vamps and fuzzed-out rockers like "The Late Great Cassiopeia." Plus, singer Sasha Bell has a sexy, deadpan delivery that keeps cutesiness from overwhelming the Green's songs. So even if the band lacks the full-on psychedelic sound of some of its former Elephant 6 cohorts, the Essex Green has an intimate charm that ensures it won't be going the way of the wooly mammoth anytime soon.