Melt
Country music's hottest boy band really doesn't do anything that hasn't already been done just as well or better by earlier country-pop "all-guy" bands likeDiamond RioandRestless Heart. Yet Rascal Flatts' pretty harmonies, so full of painful earnestness and pubescent yearning, are often very affecting, particularly coming from a trio that looks--and often sounds--like its members are still trying to grow their first chest hairs. And now and then, as on Marcus Hummon's rousing "Dry County Girl" and theNickel Creek-like "Shine On" (cowritten by the three band members), these rascals even show fleeting innovation. But on too many of the remaining nine tracks the trio's youthful exuberance doesn't quite escape the confining shackles of generic production and overly predictable song fare.--Bob Allen