"On 'Friction, Baby,' we really wanted to show people that we could rock," Griffin said recently. "When we got done with that album, I was thinking to myself, 'I really want to write a simple pop album, just fun sing-along-type songs.' What happened is, with the exception of a few songs, we went into the studio and made something completely different from that."

The result of the many weeks Griffin, bassist Tom Drummond and drummer Travis McNabb spent ensconced in their new Garden District studio was the rich textures and cool ambience of the ambitious "How Does Your Garden Grow?" BTE performs Sunday at the House of Blues in its first local headlining appearance since Elektra Records released the album in August.

Even though "How Does Your Garden Grow?" is not what Griffin initially envisioned, he says he's pleased with the results and the subsequent response. "It wasn't the smoothest recording session; there were definitely some heated moments with our producer," he said. "But the tension worked in our favor."

Producer Malcolm Burn, who hails from the Daniel Lanios school of ambiance and has presided over atmospheric recordings by the likes of Chris Whitley and the Neville Brothers, is "very anti-rock guitar at this point in his life," Griffin said. "Malcolm is very headstrong and persuasive. He got us into the idea of trying to imply force and drama without hitting a distortion switch, which is the opposite of what we've done in the past."

Burn's influence is clear on the drum-and-bass vibe that opens "Beautiful Mistake," the vibraphone of "Everything in 2's," the warbly ambiance of "Live Again," and the spacey Rhodes organ on "One More Murder," which Griffin originally wrote as an uptempo, Clash-like rock song.

"These are things we had always wanted to do, but had never articulated," Griffin said. "I think we had always wanted to do an album that was more experimental, or had more textures and wasn't so straight-ahead. But we didn't know how to do it, and we didn't have a producer who was willing to do it. Saying you want to do something that screws around with your formula and actually doing it are two different things. That's why, when we were making the album, there were some scary times, when we were like, 'We love this, but it's so different.'"

The jury is still out on whether "Garden" will grow into a commercial success. The band's debut, "Deluxe," topped 1 million in sales, making it the most successful album by a Louisiana rock band in the modern rock era. "Friction, Baby," released in 1996, was recently certified gold, for sales of 500,000. Griffin said "Garden" has sold about 88,000 copies so far. The current single from the album, the string-laden "At the Stars," is doing well on radio airplay charts; Elektra recently allocated a sizeable budget for a video.

"The sales have been going up consistently, so we'll cross our fingers," Griffin said. "It's a crap shoot; you never know. This is a pivotal time. Your second single needs to do well, needs to get you to a certain point for your label to continue having enthusiasm."

"As far as my brief experience in this business, it looks really good. But I've also had my hopes dashed a few times when a single didn't take off. It's cautious optimism."

If nothing else, Better Than Ezra is enjoying more critical praise than at any other point in the band's history. That's a welcome change, Griffin said, but not his ultimate goal.

"It's nice to have people recognize you, but truth be told, if I had to make a choice, I would much rather be a popular artist that the critics hated," he said. "There are very few popular artists who are critical favorites, and there are those bands like Pavement who are critical favorites, but I wouldn't be surprised if, in a couple of years, they're broken up and working day jobs. Certainly we'd love to have everybody touting us as this amazing band, but I would much rather sell as many albums as Matchbox 20 and be assured of a career."

Even without the benefit of a hit song or album, Ezra is still able to do steady business on the road, consistently filing 1,000-person clubs thanks to a loyal fanbase. Griffin hopes those fans stick with the band through any and all future sonic experiments.

"I like the ability to be able to change your sound," he said. "Some great bands have done that, and that's what I hope to be able to do. To assimilate certain trends into your band and to do them tastefully, while maintaining whatever sound you have, is a great luxury, and it's the key to longevity. So far, we've been allowed to do that with this album. Hopefully, it will get to a success level that we can all be proud of."