2morrow Ever After were among the best self-promoters on Milwaukee's rock scene a couple years ago. They're gone, but rising like a glammed-out phoenix from their glittery dust, lead man Stacy Maloney has emerged as Jupiter in Velvet. The androgynous popcraft fabulousness of T. Rex remains a touchstone, as does ’80s SoCal hairspray metal. But he has added programmed beats to substitute for a live drummer (at least in a studio setting) and broadened the scope of his guitar sound.

The danceability of mid-’80s Cult and the thread of half-serious narcissism that connects Sigue Sigue Sputnik to The Darkness—and all the way back to Marc Bolan—gives Juniper in Velvet an equilibrium of heaviness and frivolity. It works most of the time but becomes a bit skittish when Maloney goes for power balladry. There, he could benefit from the added oomph of a live drummer and production a tad lusher than that by which his rock ’n’ roll smart-aleckiness usually thrives.